A wonderful novel that you unwrap gradually, like a many layered gift. This is one that you will read, and then go back and re-read at several points because you have new information and what you read now has new meaning. In that way it reminded me of Ian McEwan's Atonement. It starts slowly, and you think that it is going to be predictable, but it is not. You are constantly reevaluating the characters and the story.

Beautifully written, haunting story. I was pulled into the story which alternates back and forth from the present to the past, each time going deeper into the story where more information is weeded out. The main character is a man in his 60s, his wife has recently died, and he has moved to a country setting to be alone. He reminisces about his past and sorts through his feelings about his father and their relationship. As the story continues, you find out more about his father's life during World War II, and more about his own recent past. This is a story about seemingly unemotional people, but it is a very emotional story.

We had high hopes for this book adn it was a bit of a let down. Many of our club members did not even finish the book.

There were so many insights in this story, that I wanted it to continue. A teenage son and his father build a precarious relationship in the 1940's. Each is almost able to read the others mind, the others thoughts, and interpret the others body language. Yet, they don't really know one another at all. Father has a secret life that he is unable to discuss with his son, but it is honorable, or is it! The son has secret thoughts that he can't share with his father, but they are normal, or are they? This relationship kept me engrossed page after page.

We see the protagonist as an aging man, who reviews his past and his present with remarkable poignancy. A great read, and a thought provoking storyline.

Our book club was divided on this one but it did provide a long discussion. Not an action book, but an interesting story does emerge. Description was excellent. Very quick read, but gives you some "thinking moments" afterwards.

Out Stealing Horses - I can't say I didn't like it (hence 3 stars) and I found the general story easy enough to follow. The story yo-yos from the present to past recounting an old man's life as a youngster and where he is now. However, reference to certain parts of his life within the story never seemed to be made clear and I found that nearing the end of the book I suddenly thought that there wasn't enough pages left to complete the story... and there weren't! It sort of finished and left me a little confused and a little disappointed. One of our book club members suggested that life is like that - loose ends are sometimes left and questions are not always answered - an interesting analogy but I prefer a beginning, middle and end to my novels.

This book has won all sorts of awards yet only 7 of 15 in our club could finish it. That said we had a very robust discussion...mostly centered on who did what when and why as we were all confused by the jumping around in time. We learned some WWII history. Maybe the names threw us off; maybe the scandinavian mentality. It was a brooding story. We thought of Hemingway's Old Man in the Sea.