The Whole Day Through

Patrick Gale's THE WHOLE DAY THROUGH enjoys a fine dual narration by Sandra Duncan and Ed Stoppard as it tells of Parisian Laura Lewis, who relocates to Winchester to care for a sick mother - and encounters a married man in hiding from his marriage. Romance and fine drama evolve.

From the back cover: When Laura Lewis surrenders her life of stylish independence in Paris to care for her mother in Winchester, romance seems a necessary casualty. Then she runs into Ben, the love of her student days - and, as she belatedly admits, her emotional yardstick for every man since. But are they brave enough to grasp this second chance at happiness, or will they be defeated by the deep-seated need to do what they think is right? Revolving around the events of a single summer's day, The Whole Day Through is a bittersweet love story, shot through with an understanding of mortality, memory and the difficulty of being good. It is a candid tale about the tests of love: the failings, the triumphs - and the regrets. Patrick Gale is an incredible writer, he really has the ability to use a few carefully selected words to create strong visual scenes packed with intense emotion. It seems to me that he has the ability to take the everyday, the ordinary and usual parts of life and shine a light on them so that we can see how beautiful, precious and heartbreaking they are. The only thing that stops me from giving this 5 stars is the way my rating scale works. My scale is really based on how much I enjoyed a book, rather than things like its relative literary merit (for example). And I have to say that this isn't really my kind of story. While I do love character driven novels I do enjoy just a little bit more plot than this story has. But it hasn't put me off his writing, and I look forward to reading more of his work. I have had Notes From An Exhibition recommended to me, so I'll be reading that soon.