Not your average family drama, All is Beauty Now immediately begins with the disappearance of a 20 year old daughter at a beach near Rio in 1962. Author Sarah Faber tells the unique story from each very different family member's perspective.
We first hear from the mother Dora of this well-to-do family. She struggles to keep it together for the sake of her two young daughters and husband, who struggles with a mental illness. She busily plans a memorial, goodbye parties and prepares for their departure to Canada, where it's hoped Canadian born Hugo can receive the treatment he needs. All the while, guilt and anxiety take over her.
Evie and Magda are the daughters "left behind". They can't go to their preoccupied mother with their grief, and can count on their father for fun & adventurous distraction, depending on his unpredictable moods.
I understood Hugo's comparison from Rio to Toronto, the grey. The Six is described as scolding & puritanical, with grey faces & grey minds. He escaped the grey city for Bacchanal in Brazil.
Hugo describes so well how heightened his senses are, how very aware he is when he's amped up in a manic state. You can feel Luiza's pain and care for her father when she's with him at those times.
Faber's writing is descriptive and brings you right to Brazil. This story certainly took me to a world not like my own, with complex characters. I can't say I found any of them endearing though, but I was curious to see the plot unfold, and how family friend Carmichael figured into it.
Interestingly, Faber is from Toronto, but now lives in Cape Breton, the opposite of me.
Interestingly, Faber is from Toronto, but now lives in Cape Breton, the opposite of me.
I received All is Beauty Now in a GoodReads giveaway.
Kara
