The Echoes

November 25, 2024
The ghost of a woman’s boyfriend attempts to piece together the mysteries of her life, in the elegant latest from Wyld (All the Birds, Singing). The reader first meets Max, who was a London university professor, shortly after his death. The cause is unknown to him, and until now, so was the existence of the afterlife: “I do not believe in ghosts, which, since my death, has become something of a problem,” he wryly notes. His chapters, titled “After,” alternate with “Before” chapters narrated by his bartender girlfriend, Hannah, in which she reveals to the reader that she’s keeping secrets from him, such as a recent abortion, and by third-person “Then” chapters, which delve into Hannah’s childhood in rural Australia and eventually reveal the painful reason why she left that country and refuses to introduce her family to Max. The intricate structure and lyrical language rewards close reading, and Wyld skillfully balances the dark subject matter with moments of levity. This unsettling novel is tough to shake.

January 1, 2025
Max can't remember how he died, but he remembers the life he shared with his girlfriend, Hannah. He now spends his days floating around their flat, watching her as she grieves his untimely death, and soon learns more about her than he did in life. Throughout Hannah's childhood in Australia, she knew nothing about her mother's side of the family until she found a small black-and-white photograph of a young girl standing in front of a cottage. A note on the back of the photograph leads her to England, where she meets Max. The novel also flashes back to Hannah's mother's traumatic childhood. Hannah romanticizes her grandmother, not knowing that she was very abusive to her own children. Wyld's (The Bass Rock, 2020) fifth book is literary fiction at its best, expertly blending humor and despair. Her prose is at times heartbreaking, at times hilarious. Fans of The Romantic (2003), by Barbara Gowdy, and Paint it Black (2006), by Janet Fitch, will feel haunted long after they have finished reading The Echoes.

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