Title: The Bird Hotel
Author: Joyce Maynard
Read: June 2023
Expected publication: out now
My Rating: all the stars!
Book Description:
After a childhood filled with
heartbreak, Irene, a talented artist, finds herself in a small Central
American village where she checks into a beautiful but decaying lakefront hotel
called La Llorona at the base of a volcano.
The Bird Hotel tells the story of this young American who, after suffering
tragedy, restores and runs La Llorona. Along the way we meet a rich
assortment of characters who live in the village or come to stay at the hotel.
With a mystery at its center and filled with warmth, drama, romance, humor, pop
culture, and a little magic realism, The Bird Hotel has all the
hallmarks of a Joyce Maynard novel that have made her a a leading voice of her
generation.
My musings:
What a beautiful, atmospheric books this was, full
of the lyrical language, keen observations and magic that makes Maynard one of
my favourite authors. I was hooked as soon as I met Irene, a young woman who
has had to endure more than her fair share of tragedy and death. Desolate, and
without much hope for the future, she boards a bus into the unknown and finds
herself in a little Central American village at the edge of a large lake and at
the foot of a volcano.
During Irene’s stay at La Llorona
she comes not contact with a wide range of people, whose fate has brought them
to this remote place, and whose lives will be forever changed after leaving
here. As La Llorona becomes home for her, Irene slowly shakes off the layers of
her grief and hopelessness that have ruled her life. But there are still some
surprises in store for her …
Told through the eyes of Irene and
flicking back and forth between the 1960s and the present, THE BIRD HOTEL was a
heartwarming and magical story about loss, grief and starting afresh, peppered
with a rich cast of unforgettable side characters. With her unflinching eye for
detail and innate understanding of the human psyche, Maynard delivers us
protagonists that are as flesh and blood as the people we have known all our
lives, set against an atmospheric backdrop of a small Mayan village. Whilst
Maynard clarifies that she has written the novel purely from the perspective of
an expat, her rich details about Mayan life and culture were fascinating and
made for wonderful armchair travel. I dare you not to be touched by at least
one of the human tales in this story – I know that I shed a few tears along the
way.
THE BIRD HOTEL is the type of
immersive, enchanting story that makes Maynard such a great writer and sent
this book straight to my favourites list. I loved every minute of it and thought
about its characters long after finishing it. All the stars from me!
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