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Summary: But I didn't cry. I don't.
Review: I first saw this book in a discount store in the late 90s, and barely scanned it, but liked what I saw. I checked it out of the public library and read it through three times. I didn't even know who Ruth Rendell was. I bought a copy, I can't remember where, to add to my permanent collection, and have read it many times. It is completely realistic. I've caught myself thinking that the Anna diaries actually have been published (like Anais Nin's) and that one of these days I'll have to buy a set, and catch Cary Oliver's "Roper" film on Masterpiece Theatre. Diaries, dollhouses, missing children (especially, as Anne points out, missing white, blonde, girl children) and gruesome unsolved crimes, are compelling elements when combined and used wisely. Rendell's use of Danish words and bits of Danish culture also help to give the story a wonderful sense of unity. She seems to do this with all her books. She really did her homework for "Shattered Silk" and another one I read a couple of years ago about a lady who inherits a jewelry business. I am NOT a big fan of fictional mysteries (real-life ones, like the Lindbergh Kidnapping, Little Miss 1565, or Amelia Earhart, are another matter) and don't even care for most Agatha Christie or Anne Perry. "Anna's Book" was so true to life that it crossed the "reality" line for me. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an extremely absorbing, intricate but very readable tale.
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Summary: Super read!
Review: I love all her books written under the Barbara Vine name. Lots of psychological detail!
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Summary: Her best yet
Review: I loved it! Ruth Rendell/Barabara Vine at her best. Do yourself a favour and read it!
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Summary: Not her best
Review: I see many other people have told the plot line, so suffice to say I do not think this is her best work - other books have more tension - this was not a "page-turner" for me. I've read all Ruth Rendell's books and recently started in on the Barbara Vine ones, and I would probably rate this lowest of all her books I've read so far. It's interesting, but I have come to expect that breathless anticipation of what is on the next page, and I didn't find it in this book.
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Summary: My all times favourite
Review: I was raised in a bookstore, did read a lot of books... But this one really stands out. The cover by itself is already appealling, the handwriting and the children, you can deduct a good story in it. I loved the diaries of Asta (I don't get it why my version is Asta's book, later on changed to Anna's book), she is so clever. The plot is fantastic, I even went to archives of the newspaper I work for to check on dates and events... Such as the ship going under with the cadets... The murder is horrifying, and you keep asking about the missing child.... They should write more books like that. Containing a good story, good characters, a thin line between fiction and non-fiction. I just devored it.....
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Summary: SOME SECRETS ARE WORTH TELLING...
Review: Originally released in the United Kingdom under the title, "Asta's book", this beautifully written, well-nuanced novel of mystery and suspense seamlessly moves between the past and the present. The past is told through the diaries of a Danish immigrant named Anna, who went to live in Edwardian England with her husband, Rasmus, and two young sons at the turn of the twentieth century. Settling down in East London in 1905, her loveless marriage and loneliness drove Anna to keep a journal of her innermost thoughts and experiences.
Though married to a man who spent a great deal of time away from home on business and with whom she seemed to have little in common, she added two more children to her family, daughters, Swanny, her favorite, and Maria, the youngest. Anna's lyrically written journals would chronicle of her life, her struggles as an immigrant, her hopes and dreams, and her adoration of Swanny. They would also tantalizingly hint at a secret that would, ultimately, impact on her daughter, Swanny, later in life.
Over seventy years later, those diaries, all forty nine of them, would be discovered and become a publishing sensation and a bestseller. Within its many pages would lie the missing pieces to a turn of the century murder mystery and the leads to the whereabouts of a missing child, as well as tantalizing clues to the puzzling circumstances surrounding Swanny's birth. This information would lie dormant until nearly a century after Anna first put pen to paper, when Anna's granddaughter, Maria's daughter, would review the diaries and discover not only the secret of Swanny's birth, but the identity of that missing child, as well as that of a killer, who nearly a century earlier had butchered two women.
This is a book well worth reading, and one that will command the reader's attention until the very last page is turned.
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Summary: What More Can I Say About Ruth Rendell?
Review: Ruth Rendell (Barbara Vine in this case) cannot be beaten when writing in her genre. As Barbara Vine she writes psychological mysteries that are extraordinary. I never cease to marvel at her ingenuity and imagination! In this book she drifts back and forth across time while describing journals written by a young Danish woman in the very early part of the twentieth century. Anna's descendents are left trying to discover the secrets behind the journals which have been kept hidden for upwards of eighty years. The way Ms. Vine seamlessly slips back and forth between 1905 and the present day (or at least 1991 close to when this novel was actually written), is truly remarkable while at the same time maintaining an aura of suspense throughout is a feat few authors could successfully accomplish, but she does it flawlessly. A true master of the psychological thriller genre!
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Summary: There's no place like home -- for madness and murder.
Review: Swanny Kjaer has led a charmed life. She is beautiful, wealthy, socially prominent, happily married and, in her fifties, still the favorite child of her strong-willed mother. Her happiness is shattered, though, when she receives an anonymous note telling her that she is not really her mother's daughter. Is it the truth, or simply a cruel prank? Swanny's self-confidence, her sense of identity, her filial devotion and, eventually, her sanity are undermined by this question. Following her mother's death, Swanny takes on the job of translating and publishing her mother's secret diaries in the hope of discovering some clue about her identity. Custody of the diaries devolves upon Swanny's niece, Ann Eastbrook, who renews Swanny's search and quicly learns that the riddle of Swanny's parentage may be bound up with a decades-old mystery involving murder and a missing child. The inhabitants of "Anna's Book" are bound by custom, duty and language. In fact, the entire novel may be read as an exercise in translation. Anna's diaries are written in her native Danish; Ann learns that nuances of language can be lost when the books are translated into English. Anna herself, fierce, stubborn and not entirely likable, loses some of her meaning when she is "translated" for the sake of her English readers (the reading public seems to revere her as some sort of feisty grande dame, overlooking her less appealing attributes). Even the mystery's denouement depends on a successful act of translation. Ruth Rendell, writing as Barbara Vine, covers familiar territory here. As in many of her novels, the family is not a site of comfort and support, but a source of conflict, doubt and madness. The source of the mystery, and its resolution are old-fashioned. Rendell is less interested in violence and special effects than in slowly gathering sense of dread. This is not traditional detective fiction, but an exploration of the recesses of the human heart. Rendell successfully parallels two unhappy marriages, showing different classes dealing with unhappiness in very different ways. Even more successful is her use of various types of texts -- Ann must piece together the two mysteries by reading diaries, yellow journalism,trial transcripts, even human faces. And Anna's voice is memorable: intelligent, imperious, hidebound, often callous. (One quibble -- it strains the reader's credibility to think that the British reading public would fail to notice how unpleasant Anna really was.) In contrast, the modern Ann is something of a cipher. She seems to be little more than a vaguely unhappy middle-aged woman with little to think about. The atmosphere is effectively chilling, although the narrative moves too sluggishly at times. Rendell apparently wants us to recognize that the mysteries of daily life do not explode; they grow over time. Given that, the resolution is too pat, a happy coincidence that jars in the context of a fine and psychologically accurate narrative. Still, Rendell's dark and homely magic works here.
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Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: This is the best novel Vine/Rendell has written under either name. It's an intricate set of puzzles constructed within each other, and after SIX readings, my fascination with this novel and its construction is undiminished, my admiration for its creator without bounds. Rendell's ability to go back and forth in time within the space of a few paragraphs is one of her best assets as a storyteller. She seamlessly weaves the apparently unrelated threads of this novel - a diary, a trial transcript, a present-day narrative - into a beguiling, compelling narrative, rich in characterization and historical detail. I can only shake my head in wonder that this novel wasn't showered with awards after its publication in 1993. It is an extraordinary achievement by an extraordinary novelist, and both the novel and its author transcend the mere 'mystery' genre. It's a great disappointment to me that while Rendell has long been a critics' favorite in the US, she has yet to achieve as wide a readership here as has her friend P.D. James.
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Summary: "Anna's Book" is my favorite book of all time!
Review: This is the most extraordinary book I have ever read, and read, and read! While it requires a little effort to "get into" the story, the end rewards are great indeed. The plot involves mysteries inside mysteries, and you're not even aware that they ARE mysteries until the answers begin to unfold. Anna's life, as revealed through her diaries, is masterfully told, from her girlhood, through her marriage and child-raising years, into her old age and death. We get to know Anna intimately, her joy, her pain, her prejudices, and we learn the truth about Swanny, the child her husband rejected.
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