The Book of Lost Threads by Tess Evans

Courtesy of: Becky from Page Turners

 

The Book of Lost Threads is a pleasant and enjoyable debut novel by Australian author Tess Evans.

The book is about four miss-matched friends; Finn, Moss, Mrs Pargetterand Sandy. Moss is 20-something woman born to a lesbian couple who is struggling to come to terms with her identity. Finn is the 'anonymous' sperm donor who fathered her. He lives in a small country town called Opportunity, next door to Mrs Pargetterwho is still struggling to cope with the still birth of her child 40 years previously and who has been knitting tea cosies for the UN for several decades. Sandy is Mrs Pargetter's nephew and he has his own family's history to make peace with.

Together they help each other comes to terms with whatever it is that they have each been struggling to come to terms with.; love, guilty, loss.

The characters and their stories were really endearing, especially the story involving Mrs Pargetter and her tea cosies.  It that sense, it was a sweet read, if not a literary masterpiece. The book did attempt to deal with big issues; love, death, family. I particularly admired Evan's having written about the child of a same-sex relationship. This is not a common theme amoungst many books that I have read, and I appreciated that Evans was willing to write about something different. It was refreshing to read about a family that wasn't your typical one, but at the same time you shouldn't read this book and expect any deep analysis of the issue.

Sometimes the characters did feel a bit caricature-ish and the story a little far fetched. I particularly didn't connect to Finn's story about the events that acted as his motivation for moving to Opportunity and living as a hermit.  The time that he spends in the monastery and his subsequent return their in his apparent time of need (which I think was quite overdone) all seemed particularly artificial.

All in all though it was an endearing, easy read. I felt myself going along for the ride with the characters and I enjoyed myself.