Postcards from Berlin

This is a compelling read told very well by the protagonist/ mom about her mysteriously sick 8 year old and the family's relationships caught up in the crisis. Frighteningly, more and more people begin to believe she may be causing the child's illness. Margaret Leroy writes beautifully with fascinating characters and situations. This was a story I could hardly wait to get back to.

Postcards from Berlin is an excellent read and a page-turner. Reminds me of a book Oprah would have picked except the ending isn't horribly depressing! Recommend it highly.

This book is scary! There aren't any ghosts (except of course the past)- or creepy crawly things, but just the idea/fact that a concerned mother can bring her child in for a medical diagnosis & have the tables turned on her so quickly. In the narrator's case, the doctor's think it is she who is making her daughter ill.And from there begins the unravelling- a marriage, the past, a life so seemingly comfortable & steady. Not only is the book quite thrilling with suspense, (will they take her child away?) it is also a meditation on what happens to a family in crisis.This book just misses the 5 star mark by a fizzled end- the carbonated excitement went flat, & the last few paragraphs fell victim to the authorial hand. It felt like the author wasn't quite sure how to end things, so she copped out with a lame sequence- which I won't reveal.Aside from that, the book is wonderfully gripping & I highly recommend it!

I loved this book. I found Cat a very appealing character, and the story of her troubled childhood brought a lump to my throat. Right from the atmospheric opening, when carol singers arrive at Cat's house, the world of the story is vividly evoked. Margaret Leroy writes beautifully - the book is full of delicately described detail and sensitively observed relationships, and the love between mother and child is tenderly depicted. From the beginning, there is a sense of unease, with hints that this perfect world is going to fall apart. As the trap started to close around Cat, I found myself reading raptly, completely gripped by the story.

When she was a young teen, her mother abandoned Catriona Lydgate, leaving the child to the machinations of governmental entities. Several years later, preschool teacher Catriona met and married Richard, a divorced father of one of her students. Over the next few years life seems perfect to Catriona.Everything changes when POSTCARDS FROM BERLIN arrive from either her mother or someone who knows her past. More upsetting is when her eight-year-old daughter Daisy becomes very ill with a stomach flu. The doctor initially rejects Catriona's concerns, but eventually (to shut Catriona up) refers the preadolescent to a pediatrician. The two medical professionals conclude that Catriona is the prime cause of Daisy's disease and bring in the authorities to investigate. A distraught Catriona pleads with Richard to help her hide her ugly childhood from the investigators that she believes supports their position of her being a nut case, but he refuses. Catriona sees her world collapsing but must take a risk on reaching out to the past that could destroy her so she can help her child.This condemnation of the British health care system is at its strongest when the reader is not sure whether Catriona is a beleaguered person fighting the bureaucracy for her daughter or a paranoid maniac whose buried past resurfaced pushing her over the edge. A romantic subplot takes away from the deep look at the protagonist and the failures of the health care system. Though Richard is described as a womanizing loser, the audience will comprehend why he struggles with his wife's demands. POSTCARDS FROM BERLIN is overall a When she was a young teen, her mother abandoned Catriona Lydgate, leaving the child to the machinations of governmental entities. Several years later, preschool teacher Catriona met and married Richard, a divorced father of one of her students. Over the next few years life seems perfect to Catriona.Harriet Klausner