Jenny Warner is a caregiver in a rural nursing home. She is particularly close to one of her charges, Stella Newland. She and Stella also share the experience of a passionate extramarital affair. The charm of this wonderful story, however, is in the telling and the characters. Both are rich and marvelously compelling. ( )

Genevieve bzw. Jenny arbeitet in einem noblen Altenheim und freundet sich dort mit Stella an, einer 70 Jahre alten, an Lungenkrebs erkrankten, wohlhabenden Frau. Bald fangen die beiden Frauen an, sich die Geheimnisse ihrer Leben anzuvertrauen. Dabei spielt Gilda Brent, eine verschwundene, früher berühmte Schauspielerin eine diffuse, aber immer wichtigere Rolle.

Die Idee, Gilda Brent als nicht anwesende Co-Hauptdarstellerin des Romans zum Teil sehr sublim zu inszenieren, finde ich gut. Ansonsten habe ich Schwierigkeiten gehabt, in den Rhythmus dieses Buches zu kommen. 100 Seiten weniger hätten es auch getan. ( )

The cover blurbs mismanaged my expectations for this book. It was described as "chilling" and "deliciously evil." Heavy foreshadowing revealed the eventual "twist" early on, but I kept reading, thinking there must be more to it, only to be disappointed in the end. It wasn't m ore "twisted" or "evil" or "chilling" than I had guessed; it was less.
The writing was very good. The characters of 30 year old Genevieve and 70 year old Stella, each involved in an adulterous relationship, were very well developed. Genevieve compared and contrasted her current relationship with Ned to Stella's decades old affair, but was not able to change her behavior. Women always think their own doomed relationship is different from everyone else's and will somehow work out, don't they? ( )

I read on the back of Barbara Vine's books (Grasshopper I think it was) that she 'writes very well about young people'. I thought they had that the wrong way round - I'd say she writes very well about old people. Both in this and in Asta's Book she creates very credible, interesting elderly characters. This has two stories - Stella, the old lady in a nursing home and what happened to her in her youth, and the story of Jenny who works in the nursing home, unravels the mystery, and has an affair with a married man newly arrived in the village. I found both equally enjoyable, both brought to a good conclusion. The final 'twist' was a nice touch. ( )

Semi-spoilerish if you can't spot the obvious.

This is one of those Vines where there isn't a clear pro or antagonist. There isn't some heinous crime that either woman is hiding. Yes, there could have been something like that in Stella's past, but it I didn't get that sense of things. Surely there is something she regrets and perhaps is ashamed of, what with leaving her house the way she did (oh and what a romantic name - Malacca), but I never got the sense of real criminality.

This is the story of guilty secrets and love gone wrong. Because Stella and Alan's romance ran aground it's a pretty sure bet that Jenny and Ned's will too. Despite that it was a very romantic novel. Stella's remembrances are tinged with enough sadness to be believable, but not so much as to be sappy. Playing the victim just isn't her style. No wonder Jenny likes her and I like the way Vine brought her to life. Born in a time when graciousness was appreciated in women, Stella is poised and polished. Sheltered, too, because that's how women were treated when she came of age; like exotic birds that couldn't be shown too much of the world for fear they would die. In the end though, Stella has enough backbone to sustain her through a horrific event that should have killed her soul, but didn't. The disillusion of her love was palpably sad and even though Jenny's ended quite differently, it echoed nicely. ( )