Review-ish: New Zealand’s Sunday Star Times

This article in New Zealand’s Sunday Star Times sort of sneaks in a little review of Reunion. After listing her 10 favorite things about winter, ending with her favorite merino trench coat, author Linda Hallinan realizes the coat reminds her of something the Alter sisters said. She writes:

“Isn’t that what fashion is? A nonverbal means of lying about the sad, naked truth?” quips one of the trio of single, suicidal sisters in Judith Claire Mitchell’s new novel, A Reunion of Ghosts. (A dark comedy, I was hooked by page four when it was revealed that the sisters – Lily, Veronica and Delph – were all named for flowers, although “Delph is short for Delphine, which our mother thought was the name of the vivid blue perennial, but actually means ‘like a dolphin’.”)

Ms. Hallinan then decides to augment her list of favorite winter things:

“Make that 11 things I love about winter: devouring novels in one go without feeling the least bit guilty about sitting on my chuff, comfortably indoors, while my garden, stripped starkers, shivers out in the cold alone, looking decidedly worse for wear.”

I have to admit, as a person who doesn’t mind a little chuff-sitting myself, I can’t help but applaud this addition. As summer approaches in this hemisphere, here’s to cozy winters and novels.

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