#Review: The Hope Fault by Tracy Farr @hissingswan @BelgraviaB @JGoRice #TheHopeFault

Release date - 10th July 2018
Book length - 340 pages
Publisher - Aardvark Bureau (Gallic Books)
Book Depository - www.bookdepository.com
Amazon UK - www.amazon.co.uk
Amazon US - www.amazon.com

I want to thank Jimena from Gallic Books for providing me with a copy of this book for review.


ABOUT THIS BOOK

Iris’s family – her ex-husband with his new wife and baby; her son, and her best friend’s daughter – gather to pack up their holiday house. They are there for one last time, one last weekend, and one last party – but in the course of this weekend, their connections will be affirmed, and their frailties and secrets revealed – to the reader at least, if not to each other.

The Hope Fault is a novel about extended family: about steps and exes and fairy godmothers; about parents and partners who are missing, and the people who replace them.


MY REVIEW

THE HOPE FAULT by Tracy Farr is a beautiful novel centred wholeheartedly on family and family dynamics, with prose that will lull you gently into this engaging story.

Iris has sold their holiday home and must now, over the course of a weekend, pack up all of its belongings and say goodbye. Along to help is her son, her ex-husband and his new wife and their new baby, her best friend (who is also her ex-husband's twin sister) and her best friend's daughter. And then there is the spectre of Rosa - Iris's mother who is 100 years old, living in a nursing home, and who no longer talks or remembers them at all. As everyone converges on the house which has a special place in all of their hearts for different reasons, old hurts, anxieties, and emotions will slowly simmer to the surface as the characters try to find their footing with what is happening in their lives.

This is not a fast-paced, energetic drama with plot twists around every corner, but rather a slow unwrapping of a story that is very much character centred and which unfurls this complicated family structure one piece at a time in an almost melodic fashion. The poetic language comes alive in this deep and thought-provoking novel and I fell under its spell each time I picked it up. While Rosa isn't physically at the house she is such a central character and I loved getting to know her through letters and memories as the story developed. 

There is depth, love, and complicated feelings throughout THE HOPE FAULT by Tracy Farr and a beauty all of its own among the descriptive prose that will transport you to the home that makes it all possible. Definitely a book worth reading!


AUTHOR BIO

Tracy Farr is a novelist and short story writer who used to be a scientist. Originally from Australia, she’s lived in New Zealand for more than twenty years; she calls both countries home.

Tracy's debut novel The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt (Fremantle Press 2013; Aardvark Bureau 2016) is about love, loss, electronic music and the sea. Her second novel, The Hope Fault (Fremantle Press 2017, Aardvark Bureau 2018), is about family, anxiety and geology.

For more information:
Website - tracyfarrauthor.com
Twitter - twitter.com/hissingswan
Facebook - www.facebook.com/tracyfarrauthor/
Instagram - www.instagram.com/hissingswan/