“Above all,” she recalls, “there was music, and there was Ivor, and there was her inability to tell where her love for one spilt over into her love for the other.”
Loved it, loved it, loved it! One of the few novels that made me cry, probably the third or fourth in my all life as a reader.
First of all, it is written beautifully, with a musicality and a depth that it would have been a pleasure even if the plot was not so good. Laura Barnett's style is rich yet never pompous, it can describe situations, places and people in a way that make you really feel you are there, in the story.
And it is a writing style that gave me a lot of emotions as it connected me so deeply to Cass Wheeler, the novel main character, from the anger and sadness of her childhood to the sparkles of becoming famous, to the devastation of her relationship and to her biggest sorrow.
So much despair, so much joy, Cass's story seems so real it could have been a biography, and yet it had the power to grip me as if it was a crime novel, eager to know how it ends, what happens next.
I am not a musical person at all, and yet, because of this stupendous style, I could feel in my guts Cass's need to do music, to write songs, to transfer her feelings in words and notes.
I loved Barnett's previous novel - the Versions of us - but I think, if possible, I even loved Greatest hits even more and I am absolutely in love with her writing style.
Overall rating: 10 Plot: 10 Writing style: 10 Cover: 8
Title: Greatest hits
The plot:
A musician born in 1950, Cass is now taking one day to select the sixteen songs in her repertoire that have meant the most to her. And behind each song lies a story - from the day her mother abandoned her, to her passionate first love, to the moment she lost everything. The dreams, the failures, the second chances. But what made her disappear so suddenly from her public life and, most importantly, can she find her way back?
The Author:
Laura Barnett was born in 1982 in south London, where she now lives with her husband. She studied Spanish and Italian at Cambridge University, and newspaper journalism at City University, London.
Her bestselling debut novel, The Versions of Us, was published in May 2015 and has been translated into 23 languages. TV rights have been optioned by Trademark Films.
Her second novel, Greatest Hits, is published on 15 June 2017, and features a unique collaboration with singer-songwriter Kathryn Williams on an album to be released alongside the book.
As a freelance arts journalist, features writer and theatre critic, Laura has worked for the Guardian, the Observer, the Daily Telegraph and other national newspapers and magazines. Her rst non- fiction book, Advice from the Players – a compendium of advice for actors – was published in 2014 by Nick Hern Books.
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