The Shut Away Sisters by Suzanne Goldring
Genre: Historical fiction, Dual timeline, WW1
Read: 23rd June 2021
Published: 29th June 2021
★★★ 2.5 stars (rounded up)
DESCRIPTION:
Two ordinary sisters. A long and brutal war. A heroic sacrifice…
London, 1915. As German bombs rain down on the East End of London and hungry children queue for rations in the blistering cold, fifteen-year-old Florrie is forced to grow up fast. With her father fighting in the muddy trenches, Florrie turns to her older sister Edith for comfort. But the war has changed Edith. She has grown quiet, with dark shadows under her eyes, and has started leaving the house at night in secret. When Florrie follows her sister through the dark and winding streets of London, she is shocked by what she discovers. But she knows she must keep her sister’s secret for the sake of their family, even if she herself must pay the ultimate price…
Years later Kate, running from her broken relationship, is sorting through her dead aunt Florrie’s house, which she shared with her sister Edith. As she sits on the threadbare carpets, looking at photos of Florrie during the war, she notices the change in her aunt – from carefree young girl with a hopeful smile to a hollow-cheeked young woman, with dark sad eyes.
Determined to put her family’s ghosts to rest, Kate must unearth the secret past of her two aunts. Why is there a hidden locked room in the little house they shared? What is the story behind the abandoned wedding dress wrapped in tissue and tied up with a ribbon? And when Kate discovers the tragic secrets that have bound her family together, will she ever be able to move on?
A heartbreaking historical novel of war, tragedy and the sacrifices we make for those we love. Fans of Fiona Valpy, Kristin Hannah and Victoria Hislop will be hooked by The Shut-Away Sisters.
MY REVIEW:
I've been am eager fan of Suzanne Goldring ever since her historical dual timeline debut "My Name is Eva", which absolutely loved, and was excited to delve into yet another of her heartbreaking historical reads. But sadly I found this one failed to live up to her other preceding three. At first I thought it was just a slow build up with a promise of things to come but it never actually got there.
1999: Thirty-something Kate is shocked to discover her partner of five years is having an affair so packs herself up and makes the journey to Dorset to stay with her parents. Whilst there, her father tells her that her Great-Aunt Florrie is in hospital and unlikely to return home to her large sprawling Victorian house on the outskirts of London. He suggests that Kate move into Florrie's house while she takes stock of her life and sorts herself out and then when the time comes, to help her father by sorting through things.
Kate has vague memories of visiting her Great-Aunt there as a child but also remembers that both Florrie and her older sister Edith kept pretty much to themselves. In fact, she can't even recall a time she heard Edith speak. And Kate returns to the house and begins the process of creating an inventory of items before her brothers' horrid wives descend on the place like vultures picking at their prey. Soon after moving in, she visited Florrie in the hospital and appalled at the conditions and care she received there, made the necessary enquiries to relocate her to a comfortable nursing home. However, Florrie was only there a couple of days before she passed away and Kate berated herself for not being with her at the time.
Over time, she meets the neighbours - Marjorie, Peter, Tom and his wife, the widowed Dorothy and even the owners of the corner shop "All Hours" - who all remember Florrie fondly. It becomes clear that the residents of Coventry Road are a close-knit community that keep themselves to themselves but also look out for one another. But no one seems to remember much about Edith, who was too all intents and purposes, reclusive and only ventured out once a week for church at the end of the street.
It isn't long before Kate finds her demanding job as a public relations consultant is emotionally and physically draining and instead she finds solace in the peacefulness of Florrie's house. She meets antiques appraiser and dealer Nick at the church fete one day where she took an ugly looking vase along for appraisal. She was surprised to discover its value and wondered what else may lurk in the house of similar worth and although they continued to meet regularly, she never asked him to appraise anything else.
And yet, she found herself becoming restless in her work and her life. Is this all that there is? Is this all her life is going to be? She thought she was on the cusp of marriage and children with David but look how that turned out. Could she, should she dare to hope for more?
1915: The country is at war and families are trying to hold it through rationing, loss of loved ones and terrible hardship. Florrie Henderson is faced with one tragedy after another as she relinquishes her own chances at happiness for her sister. We first meet Florrie when she is 13 years old and helping her mother run their household whilst her 18 year old sister Edith shuts herself away in her room upstairs writing poems and letters to her sweetheart Frank who left to fight the year before. Every day Edith listens for the postman for letters from Frank and is dismayed when there are none but delighted on the days there are. Either way, she shuts herself in her room to reflect and to write...something which Florrie can see no use in. Her father is also sent away to fight some years later and soon returns home at the end of the war but not without scars. Her younger brother Georgie was too young to fight but instead learnt his father's trade so he could one day take over the business.
When their father returned home, Edith was beside herself asking him if he had seen Frank. Where was Frank? Was he on his way home too? But their father hadn't seen him, saying that there were thousands of men out there. As the days and weeks turned into months and still there was no news of Frank, Edith still shut herself away writing.
Florrie was 16 when the war ended and with it came the Spanish flu. When their mother collapsed and took ill, it was left to Florrie to keep the house and cook for them all, ensuring their father and Georgie were well fed while Edith only picked at her food...if she ever came down for meals at all. And then Florrie awoke one day after two weeks of sickness in which their father had to care for them all, and he was not well himself, what with the scars of the war he now carried from the mustard gas the Germans used. But now as she recovered from the Spanish flu, Florrie knew the responsibilities now sit on her shoulders as their mother had succumbed to it whilst Florrie was ill. All the while, Edith continued to believe that Frank was coming home to her and did little else but shut herself away and write day after day.
One day, when walking in the park with their brother Georgie, Edith spots some soldiers and boys gathered together and she smiles coyly at them. Soon after, she began to disappear every week and then almost every day, rain or shine, returning hours later and locking herself away once again. When Florrie confronted her about her daily jaunts, Edith gushed her relief at being able to confide in her that Frank had returned and she had been meeting him. Florrie thought this unlikely but accepted her sister's story. It had become clear that Edith was so deranged with grief she was convinced Frank had returned to her.
But what she didn't know was that Edith had a secret. A secret that could ruin her. And it is one that, once she discovered it, she would keep forever...to protect Edith. Even if it meant forgoing her own happiness.
Many years later, as Kate rifles through Florrie and Edith's possessions she comes across a locked door to which there is no key. Well, not one she has found anyway. What lies behind that door? What secrets does it hold? And will it reveal why the sisters never married?
THE SHUT AWAY SISTERS is told in dual perspectives of Florrie in the years 1915 through to 1924 and Kate in 1999 and this is generally my preferred style of book for historical fiction. But it felt as if I were reading two different books. I felt no connection between Florrie and Kate, despite their relationship to each other, nor any between the two differing eras. I kept waiting for something to happen to weave the stories together but nothing came. Although there is a link between the stories, it is threadbare and barely there at all. This saddened me greatly as I so love Suzanne's books but for me this one missed the mark.
Florrie's narrative is told in the form of a diary though no diary had really been uncovered or read to connect the two stories. Kate did come across one diary but shut it quickly believing it to be private so therefore didn't think of it again. It would have connected the two stories better had she began reading her Great-Aunt's diaries as Florrie's story unfolded in the alternating chapters from then on. But then I was confused as to the second lot of diaries which were discovered toward the end and she spent the time pouring over them and the secrets it held. But by then it was too late to connect the stories. And I though Florrie's diaries were sitting on a shelf in the sitting room downstairs...so what were these diaries? It was never really made clear although it alluded to them being Florrie's. All Edith seemed to write was poetry...and letters to Frank. I found that a little confusing.
The characters were hard to connect with and I couldn't bring myself to like Edith as much as tried to sympathise with her. She came across as selfish and thoughtless, did nothing to help at a time the family needed to pull together. Florrie was younger than her and was keeping things together whilst Edith ran off to "meet Frank" or shut herself in her room. If she was questioned, she would say "I'm busy writing" as if that were an excuse for everything. I'm not sure I liked Kate much either. I honestly couldn't decide.
This book had so much potential and I honestly struggled to finish it. I love Suzanne's dual timeline historical tales but I was sadly disappointed in this one. It could have been so much more. Still...I eagerly await her next historical read which I'm sure will be as equally heartbreaking and heartwarming as her previous tales.
I would like to thank #SuzanneGoldring, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheShutAwaySisters in exchange for an honest review.
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