Title: The Great Godden
Author: Meg Rosoff
Pages: 256 Pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
The Blurb
Everyone talks about falling in love like it’s the most miraculous, life-changing thing in the world. Something happens, they say, and you know …
That’s what happened when I met Kit Godden.
I looked into his eyes and I knew.
Only everyone else knew too. Everyone else felt exactly the same way.
From the incomparable Meg Rosoff, bestselling author of How I Live Now, comes a heady and timeless, intimate and earth-shattering wonder.
One dreamy summer, in a holiday house by the sea, two families fill hot days with food and wine, swimming and games, plans for a wedding and plans for the future.
Enter the Godden brothers – irresistible, languid Kit, and surly, silent Hugo. Suddenly there’s a serpent in paradise – but which brother is it? And is it love he promises, or something very much darker?
Profound and memorable, crystallising the exact moment at which innocence is lost, The Great Godden is a summer classic-in-the-making that sits alongside Bonjour Tristesse, The Greengage Summer and I Capture the Castle as an essential coming-of-age read.
The Review
The Great Godden by Meg Rosoff is a quiet novel. Nothing outrageous happens in it but it is a mood. The novel seems very reflective and nostalgic even when events happen that cause sadness. It is almost as if the rose tinted glasses put a soft hue around bad events.
The events of the novel take place over a summer holiday in Ireland when things take an unexpected turn with the arrival of the Godden brothers. Kit Godden is charismatic and quickly captures everyone’s eye whilst brother Hugo lingers in the background. Their arrival changes the dynamic and causes discord amongst the family.
The Great Godden isn’t a fast paced novel but it does wrap its arms around you and carry you through it. You are engaged by the curiosity of this family and you are desperate to read on. Out of all the Rosoff books I have read, The Great Godden is my favourite.
The Great Godden by Meg Rosoff is available now.
For more information regarding Bloomsbury Publishing (@BloomsburyBooks) please visit www.bloomsbury.com.
