Small Things Like These meets Under Milk Wood - this slim but devastating novel captures an entire village, an entire world, and the many ways in which a woman can be trapped. A real gem.'RUTH GILLIGAN, author of The Butchers The story is based in a small Welsh village and centres around a number of characters. Absolutely none of them appealed to me or drew me in. I am even struggling to write this as still rather baffled about the entire point. The blurb makes it sound intriguing so I was very disappointed. There are some really fascinating characters in this book, ones who shape the story and bring the village to life. There's the local shopkeeper, Mrs Williams, who sees everything that happens, Dai Bevel, a village stalwart with lots to hide, and Mary herself, who never leaves the house and who dwells on the past.

So a small treasure I’ve read this week is ‘The Unbroken Beauty of Rosalind Bone’, which I’ve heard compared with ‘Small Things Like These’ and, I think, rightly so. It’s a beautifully written story of ordinary people, a small Welsh village, expectations, assumptions, lives lived quietly amidst gossip, rumour, and eyes averted. Mary had a sister once, a girl of unparalleled beauty. Why did she disappear from the village in a shroud of shame all those years ago - and where is she now? Surrounded by mountainside, woods, ferns, green light and quiet beauty, Cwmcysgod is like so many rural villages, the world in microcosm; unspoken tensions, misunderstandings, beauty ignored, neglect and pain. The Clements brothers are trash, or so everyone thinks of them anyway. Deciding they will amount to nothing either way. The youngest use to be Catrin's best friend - and she misses him. Now they are both alone.

Select a format:

It is the story of the Bone sisters, mainly Rosalind whose beauty is unrivaled and a curse, and who goes through the unthinkable. Life is not kind to any of the characters in this novel, but Rosalind especially. It is also the story of a little hamlet where people go about their lives (often willingly) oblivious to what is happening around them and with a tendency to look the other way and judge/label people without knowing them. Rosalind Bone was a true beauty, desired by every man who saw her, but her beauty was a curse. She went missing years earlier leaving behind her sister, Mary, who went on to have a daughter, Catrin, who is entranced by the one photo that exists of Rosalind. The family mystery about what happened to her aunt is so intriguing for her. This short novella had me hooked from the start and I enjoyed the multiple point of views from a diversity of characters. The short chapters coupled with fast pace had me finishing this in one sitting.

To be frank, the ending was a tiny bit rushed. I wish [SPOILER ALERT!] we could have witnessed the mending of years of incomprehension and of being apart and the rebuilding of the relationship between the two sisters.[/SPOILER ALERT] During the story you kind of get snippets of different characters and different POV's but not before long they all start coming together in the most moving way.

Retailers:

The Unbroken Beauty of Rosalind Bone" is a beautifully crafted novel that captures the heart and imagination. With its themes of love, pain, and secrets, this book offers a powerful exploration of human emotions and the resilience of the human spirit. Sixteen-year-old Catrin Bone knows only what she has been told. Now, she is beginning to question her small world, and a version of the past that seems to entrap and embitter her reclusive mother, Mary.