Name: Patricia Nelson's review of Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller
Item: Our Endless Numbered Days
Rating: 2
Author: Patricia Nelson

Claire Fuller

Peggy Hillcoat is eight years old when her survivalist father, James, takes her from their home in London to a remote hut in the woods and tells her that the rest of the world has been destroyed. Deep in the wilderness, Peggy and James make a life for themselves. They repair the hut, bathe in water from the river, hunt and gather food in the summers and almost starve in the harsh winters. They mark their days only by the sun and the seasons. When Peggy finds a pair of boots in the forest and begins a search for their owner, she unwittingly unravels the series of events that brought her to the woods and, in doing so, discovers the strength she needs to go back to the home and mother she thought she’d lost. After Peggy's return to civilization, her mother begins to learn the truth of her escape, of what happened to James on the last night out in the woods, and of the secret that Peggy has carried with her ever since.

Our Endless Numbered Days

Sepia

Patricia Nelson

While I can appreciate the writing, and the storytelling craft of the author, I really did not love this book. I think part of my dislike is due to the fact that I saw the movie 'Room' about 3 days before starting this book, and with both stories about prolonged kidnap and abuse it was a bit too much. So for that, the author gets my kudos. I definitely 'felt' something when reading this book. The story does speak to the strength of the human spirit and will to survive, and what our minds will do to protect us from horrible truths.

WINNER OF THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE 2015 'Fuller handles the tension masterfully in this grown-up thriller of a fairytale, full of clues, questions and intrigue' The Times 'Extraordinary. From the opening sentence it is gripping' Sunday Times 1976: Peggy Hillcoat is eight. She spends her summer camping with her father, playing her beloved record of The Railway Children and listening to her mother's grand piano, but her pretty life is about to change. Her survivalist father, who has been stockpiling provisions for the end which is surely coming soon, takes her from London to a cabin in a remote European forest. There he tells Peggy the rest of the world has disappeared. Her life is reduced to a piano which makes music but no sound, a forest where all that grows is a means of survival. And a tiny wooden hut that is Everything. 'Bewitching...a rivetingly dark tale...spellbinding' Sunday Express

Leafling

This debut novel was brilliant. It's one of my new favorite books.

Peggy Hillcoat, an 8-year-old girl, is taken away from her home by her father one day. He tells her that the world has ended and that the rest of her family is dead. They are the only two people in the world left. They live together off of very little in a completely rundown cabin in the woods. When she finally comes back to her mother nine years later, they both discover the truth about what happened out there in the wilderness and back home before they left.

The characters and the world that they build for themselves is so vivid. A story about two people alone in the woulds could easily become boring and get bogged down by details about surviving with very little (though I do love those kinds of details). Their situation shone, because we learned so much about them, their relationships with each other, and their previous relationships with people like Peggy's mother as time goes on. Both Peggy and her father are still wrapped up in the past and their own dreams, that they get very involved in certain projects like building Peggy a noiseless piano. It takes them a while to really learn how to take care of themselves and each other. But something is very clearly changing in her father. And once Peggy discovers a pair of boots in the woods, everything starts to unravel and fall apart.

I loved that the book jumped back and forth between Peggy's time as an adult back home with her mother and when she is a child with her father. The tension that's created is superb and everything is revealed with expert timing. I was too absorbed in the story to even think once about what Fuller was slowly doing.

This is a very quick, dark, and heart-wrenching read. Fuller's prose is absolutely exquisite. At so many chapter endings I felt completely blown away and ready to race into the next chapter. Her writing and pacing sucked me in entirely. I couldn't stop reading. And it's not a thriller or a mystery, really. It is well-written, unnerving literary fiction that feels absolutely human and real. And, wow, what an ending.

Full review: http://outlandishlit.blogspot.com/201...

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Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller

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Sepia &Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller

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Sepia &
Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller