The Frequency of Us - Keith Stuart

 

Description

*** A BBC2 BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK ***
*** BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME ***

In Second World War Bath, young, naïve wireless engineer Will meets Austrian refugee Elsa Klein: she is sophisticated, witty and worldly, and at last his life seems to make sense . . . until, soon after, the newly married couple's home is bombed, and Will awakes from the wreckage to find himself alone.

No one has heard of Elsa Klein. They say he was never married.

Seventy years later, social worker Laura is battling her way out of depression and off medication. Her new case is a strange, isolated old man whose house hasn't changed since the war. A man who insists his wife vanished many, many years before. Everyone thinks he's suffering dementia. But Laura begins to suspect otherwise . . .

Review

I loved A Boy Made of Blocks, but this is not really in the same league.

I took some time to get into this one. The story begins with Will having rejected any help from Social Services and their suspicions that he has dementia. Until Laura arrives and he invites her in. We then flash back and forth from 2008 to the war years and the life he remembers but no one else can verify. The dual time line was well laid out but I just didn't feel any connection with the two main characters of Will and Laura. Having said that I was so intrigued that I did read to the end.

Laura has her own demons and the description of her emotions and feelings was so well written and sensitive. Yet, I could not connect with her. 

I had a hunch of what was happening in the book and it did play out the way I thought it would, until the very end. I found it strange that a totally new character is introduced and the storyline takes a swerve that was not in my opinion necessary.

I'm giving this book 3 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review.