“There are moments in time when we may ponder, ‘What if?’ How may my life have differed? This is the them underpinning this remarkable debut novel.”
With her daughter Maia, Cora walks to register her newborn son and officially bestow his name. There are consequences for Cora’s choice and in a heartbeat, her decision at the registry office re-charts the course of time.
The Names is an imagination of three separate scenarios of her son’s life as Bear, Julian or Gordon – a sample of a ‘sliding doors’ narrative.
Cora is a portrait of a domestically abused woman protecting her beloved children but at what cost?
A powerful written work from an imaginative debut that challenged my emotional and reasonable mind.
A sharp insight into a gracious woman’s mind as she orders her life under the deep, dark shadows of her husband’s cruel rule.
Dark, but not heavy, The Names is focused on the bonded affinity between an mother and her children – and a brother and sister.
A story told in three parts, but like a cord of three strands, it is a strong bold novel.
Book Club questions could centre around the meaning of names and does this affect life outcomes?
Sue Reid
Read By Reid NZ
Hachette Publishers
ISBN 9781399624039