The clockmaker book3/27/2023 ![]() ![]() She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II. ![]() Nevertheless, those who appreciate a leisurely and meditative read, with lush settings, meticulous period detail, and slowly unfurling enigmas, will enjoy this book. The ratcheting between eras makes sorting the many characters all the more challenging, while the powerful theme of bereft childhood gets lost in an excess of exemplars. Juliet, in 1940, escapes the London Blitz for the shelter of Birchwood. In 1928, Leonard, a historian still grieving the loss of his brother in the Great War, arrives at Birchwood to research Edward, aided by the now elderly Lucy. Lucy, Edward’s sister, inherited the house and founded the school. In 1899, Ada, a young Anglo-Indian, is dropped off at the girls’ school that occupied Birchwood for a time, with no explanation by her parents, who then head back to India. Elodie’s mother, a famous cellist, also died under suspicious circumstances near Birchwood. In 2017, Elodie is an archivist who sees Lily’s photo among Edward’s effects and experiences a shock of recognition. The characters across different time periods are enmeshed with each other and with Edward and the murky circumstances-including a murder and a diamond heist-preceding his death. At 5, Lily was consigned to a more genteel version of Fagin’s den of thieves by her clockmaker father, who then decamped for America. Lily spies on the other guests, most recently Jack, a photojournalist, and occasionally meddles. She is also the only permanent tenant, since she is a ghost. The unifying presence at Birchwood is Lily, whose connection, presumably romantic, with Edward is not immediately revealed. All the people for whom Birchwood holds a special attraction are, in some way, abandoned children. Successive generations have inhabited Birchwood, which was the summer home, briefly, of Victorian artist Edward Radcliffe, member of a Pre-Raphaelite–esque painting cabal. The author's current architectural bellwether is Birchwood Manor, a country house on the Thames. ![]() Morton’s interest in houses as repositories of secrets ( The House at Riverton, 2008 The Lake House, 2015) reaches full flower in her latest novel. ![]()
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