Book info

• Title Coastliners
• Author Joanne Harris
• Year 2002
• Genre Contemporary

On the tiny Breton island of Le Devin, life has remained almost unchanged for over a hundred years. For generations, two rival communities have fought for control of the island's only beach. When Mado returns home to her village after a ten-year absence, she finds it threatened, both by the tides and by a local entrepreneur. Worse, the community is suffering from an incurable loss of hope. Taking up the fight to transform the dying village, Mado must confront past tragedies, including the terrible secret that still haunts her father.

Thoughts

Mado returns to her home, a tiny island off the coast of France where two warring villages make life tough. Mado finds herself tasked with rousing the spirits of her friends, making amends with her father, and contending with village scandals and spiteful neighbours.

There’s a relationship aspect as well, with mainlander and outside Flynn. All the characters are incredibly complex - some set in their ways, some silent, some mysterious. It’s all very intriguing. Flynn himself has a twist at the end of the book and I didn’t guess it at all. I fell in love with most of the characters, even those that I loved to hate, and although at the start it felt there were too many names to remember, it didn’t matter as the story wound towards a conclusion.

Harris’ style of writing is so descriptive. I can always smell what a character is smelling or feel the wind off the tide just by turning the page. Wool, flowers, metal, chocolate, wine, everything she puts a pen to will appear in your senses. Her writing is slow-moving and heart-felt, no violent or graphic sequences involved or needed, just people and their feelings and their lives. It was enchanting.

Rating: 5 / 5