3.5.17

BOOK REVIEW: The Summer of Impossible Things by Rowan Coleman

If you could change the past, would you?
It is only after her mother's death that Luna begins to discover her secrets.
While in New York to settle the estate, something impossible happens to Luna. She finds herself in 1977, face to face with her mother as a young woman, in the week that changed her life forever.
If time can be turned back, can it also be rewritten? Luna becomes convinced she can save her mother from the moment that will eventually drive her to suicide.
But in doing anything- everything to save her mother's life, will Luna have to sacrifice her own?

Publisher: Ebury
Pages: 400

Rowan Coleman writes beautiful books and I think The Summer of Impossible Things might just be my favourite. I felt very different to her other books due to the time travel element but the author's talent at drawing out deep emotions from her characters shines through.
Luna has lost her mother to suicide, devastated, she and her sister travel to New York to settle their mother's estate. Whilst there, Luna finds herself travelling in time to 1977, to a time when her mother was blissfully happy. Once Luna comes to terms with the idea that she can time travel and that she is not going mad; she realises that she may be able to alter the past. What if she can prevent the event which triggered her mother's depression which led to her suicide? But what if stopping that event means that Luna won't exist? Is she prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice?
It's tricky to review this book without spoiling the plot so I shall try and be very careful. If you can go along with the idea of time travel then you will love this book. I really enjoyed the parts of the book set in 1977 and how Luna has to fir into a different time and  being with a very different version of her mother.
Rowan Coleman uses Luna's ability to time travel to explore the idea of love and sacrifice. Luna loves her family, it is clear to see through her relationship  with her sister. She loved her mother and would do anything to change how her mother had felt. She is given the chance to alter the events of her mother's life and she has to decide if she is prepared to lose her own life in order to do so.
The Summer of Impossible Things is brave, thought-provoking and beautifully written; Rowan Coleman shines yet again.

Many thanks to Ebury for allowing me to review this book via Netgalley.

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