The Trick to Time…

About the Book:

Birmingham, 1972.
Mona is a young Irish girl in a big city, with the thrill of a new job and a room of her own in a busy boarding house. On her first night out in town, she meets William, a charming Irish boy with an easy smile and an open face. They embark upon a dizzying love affair, a whirlwind marriage, an unexpected pregnancy – before a sudden tragedy tears them apart.
Decades later, Mona pieces together the memories of the years that separate them. But can she ever learn to love again?
The Trick to Time is an unforgettable tale of grief, longing, and a love that lasts a lifetime.
A heart-wrenching novel by the internationally bestselling author of My Name is Leon.

My Thoughts:

Irish fiction often seems to have a way of getting deep under my skin, right down into my bones where I end up feeling the story in a way that makes it impossible to truly ever let go of. The Trick to Time is such a gem of a novel, so incredibly moving and uniquely insightful.

Mona is sixty, lives in a nice apartment with a view, is financially secure, has a successful small business creating unique collectable dolls, and enjoys the company of a group of friends and acquaintances on a regular basis. She also has a gift: she knows the trick to time and teaches it to others. How she developed such an ability and why she teaches it to others is a story that will break your heart.

“Mona takes a breath.
‘It was only the kindness of a stranger that gave me the time to say goodbye. And that kindness gave me forty-five minutes with my child and I turned that forty-five minutes into a lifetime, into all the days and hours and weeks and years that we would never have together.’
The French windows rattle against the frame and Mona stands up to lock them.
‘There is a trick to time, Sarah. You can make it expand or you can make it contract. You can make the most of what you have.’”

The Trick to Time is a novel about love, hope, loss and grief. It shows how eternal love is, how grief may dim over time but never truly be extinguished. It shows how to live again when all ahead seems lost. Kit de Waal’s words are seemingly infused with magic, her prose filled with the beauty of truth and an insight that will leave you breathless and aching for more. This is a novel where the less you know about the story ahead of reading, the better. You will appreciate it all the more.

Thanks is extended to Penguin Random House Australia for providing me with a copy of The Trick to Time for review.

About the Author:

Kit de Waal was born in Birmingham to an Irish mother, who was a childminder and foster carer and a Caribbean father. She worked for fifteen years in criminal and family law, was a magistrate for several years and sits on adoption panels. She used to advise Social Services on the care of foster children, and has written training manuals on adoption, foster care and judgecraft for members of the judiciary. Her writing has received numerous awards including the Bridport Flash Fiction Prize 2014 and 2015 and the SI Leeds Literary Reader’s Choice Prize 2014 and the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year. MY NAME IS LEON, her first novel was published in 2016. She has two children.
http://www.kitdewaal.com