Title: THE END OF SEEING
Author: Christy Collins
Type of Book: Softcover
Length: 190 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Date: August 23, 2015
Publisher: Xoum Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-921134-62-3 (Print)
ISBN: 978-1-921134-63-0 (EBook)
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
~ I received a free copy of this book through the Goodreads Giveaway program. A review was not a requirement of receiving this book, but authors and publishers always appreciate honest reviews.
THE END OF SEEING is the winner of the 2015 Seizure Viva La Novella Prize.
“The buildings rise from the rain-blackened streets and office workers slip by leaving pieces of conversation in the air…”
Ana. Poor Ana. She has to be one of the unluckiest people alive. First, she loses her daughter in a tragic accident and next her photojournalist partner, Nick, goes missing and is presumed dead.
Everyone, including the police and the rest of Nick’s family are convinced that he perished in a boating accident off the coast of Italy.
But, no body has ever been found. Yes, his cellphone washed ashore, but there are lots of reasons his cellphone could be there without him.
Ana is determined to find out the truth and to prove that he is still alive. She sets out to follow his path and to trace his movements.
What she discovers along the way will surprise everyone.
This book is a literary masterpiece.
It is written in delightfully descriptive prose that will resonate with readers of all ages.
Ana’s desire to believe that Nick is still alive is 100% believable and totally understandable. I have always wondered how a person can possibly grieve and move on if no body is found. I believe that I would be just like Ana; thinking of all the possible (even if improbable) scenarios that could lead to someone’s disappearance. This is highlighted by Ana’s thoughts at the beginning of the book:
“We’re you on that boat? Did you get off alive? Did you think: now’s my chance to disappear, to escape the grief and guilt of Mia’s death? Did you mingle in a crowd, jump on a bus, and head for the mountains, cross the border on foot, without papers, like others on board had no doubt planned to do? Maybe you were unable to resist the power of your own story, seeing how far you could get, how long you could survive – earning black money or none at all, nameless and untraceable. Or are you maddened by an ordeal at sea? Perhaps you don’t know your own name… Perhaps you’re asleep in a youth hostel, bed springs creaking above and below you. Perhaps you’re dreaming of running a very long way without anything to stop you. While I, awake in the middle of the night, am dreaming still of you.”
The subject matter may seem bleak and dark at times, but the same can be said of reality. Everyone experiences times of darkness in their lives. Christy Collins has eloquently captured both the beauty and despair of the human condition and the endurance of hope when all seems lost.
Christy Collins has an uncanny ability to say quite a bit by using few words. For example; interspersed amongst the details of Ana’s journey are random memories that pop into her mind. Here is one such memory:
“I remember a summer holiday: no-one on the beach but the two of us. Evening waves repeated themselves softly on the shore. Beginning with the soles of my feet, you reminded me I was alive. Later: salt and sand swilled down the drain in the cracked-tiled bathroom in a cheap hotel. You reminded me again.”
Nowhere in the above narrative does it say that Ana and Nick made love, but the reader knows that this is what occurred. Also nowhere in this description does it mention how old they were when this event took place, yet, somehow, the way it is written evokes a vision in the reader’s mind of Nick and Ana in their youthful, carefree past; before adult and familial responsibilities changed their lives. Only a highly skilled and supremely talented author can say so much with so few words.
I highly recommend this book and rate it is 5 out of 5 stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Visit http://seizureonline.com/shop/the-end-of-seeing/ for more information as well as links to buy this amazing book online.
- FAVOURITE QUOTES FROM “THE END OF SEEING”
“Sometimes I felt like we were shipwreck survivors, washed up in Suburbia – living day to day and waiting for the rescuers to come and deliver us back to the country where our real lives were going on without us.”
“I look around the [hotel] room, not really expecting to find anything: hotel rooms like this one have no memory.”
“I’m on a mission no-one else believes in, and I’m not even sure I believe it myself. What was I expecting? Clues scrawled in blood on the hotel wall? Love letters jammed under sofa cushions: ‘Come find me, my love; we’ll both disappear’?”
“The day is clear and blue and emerald green. The smell of my sunscreen reminds me of summers past.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christy Collins is a writer, reader, film reviewer and PhD student at the University of Tasmania. The End of Seeing is published by Seizure and was a joint winner of the Viva la Novella Prize 2015.
To learn more about Christy Collins visit https://memoryanddistance.wordpress.com/
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