Book info

• Title Victoria Park
• Author Gemma Reeves
• Year 2021
• Genre Contemporary

Mona and Wolfie have lived on Victoria Park for over fifty years. Now, on the eve of their sixty-fifth wedding anniversary, they must decide how to navigate Mona's declining health. Bookended by the touching exploration of their love, Victoria Park follows the disparate lives of twelve people over the course of a single year. Told from their multiple perspectives in episodes which capture feelings of alienation and connection, the lingering memory of an acid attack in the park sends ripples of unease through the community. By the end of the novel, their carefully interwoven tales create a rich tapestry of resilience, love and loss.

Thoughts

I absolutely devoured this, it was wonderful. It’s effectively twelve short stories or essays, one for each month of the year, and each focusing on a different character that lives or interacts somehow with Victoria Park. The glory of each story is how they are their own thing, of course, but also manage to link to the others, with characters popping up or being mentioned throughout even if they are not the focus of this particular month.

It’s so beautifully written, it really brings you into the world of each character so that you empathise, whether they are behaving well or badly or somewhere in between. Highly recommended.

Rating: 5 / 5