Kotuku

Rating:
Summary: An evocative, gentle story of loss and survival
Review: Charlotte has no desire to leave her Cape Cod roots or home since her best friend Wim died: she just wants to be left alone with her job grooming horses. When an elderly aunt with mental problems and a last wish for her life comes to live with them, and a visitor from New Zealand stays on their property and evokes romantic feelings, Charlotte finds her life changing despite all she can do to resist. An evocative, gentle story of loss and survival.

Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: I have read some of Ms. Savage's previous work, and it's been on my mind lately. I finished this book today, after checking it out yesterday reading the bulk of it in a few hours. I could not put it down.
The story is perhaps farfetched, but I found myself identifying in so many ways to Wim that it didn't matter. There are little words of wisdom in here everywhere, and it addresses a lot of real life issues. I found the ending somewhat less than satisfactory, but as a whole, I'm rather in awe of the book. Worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: This was an interesting book
Review: This wonderful book may have a hard time finding its audience, but I hope it finds you. Readers who bring to it their curiosity and imagination, and a romantic fascination for the world will find their own worlds all the richer for it. And find enough to whet their appetites for further adventures, as it contains a splendid spread of tantalizing elements: horses, history, adventures of the heart and on land/seafaring, exotic cultures (Maori/New Zealand), and the powerful ways myths make a people connected, no matter how scattered across the globe, no matter what families we find ourselves in. These things are all enlivened by characters you grow to love, which after all is the thing that draws us into any book's world, isn't it? Some of the characters you'll wish you got to know better... But I found I knew their counterparts in my own circle of friends, over the years. I thought the author brought them to life with few strokes. I liked that the author put a glossary of Maori terms at the back; her love and respect for these people shows in the details, knowing touches. The main character's life is shown both gentle and harsh, and I think you'll like that. She reacts to its complexity with a confusion natural regardless of her age, finding mysteries hidden within mysteries, like Chines boxes. Life is like that, and there's a nice wisdom here for the reading.