Book Review Benedict Wells The End Of Loneliness

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2016 – Sceptre Books – Translated by Charlotte Collins – Spoiler alerts A German novel about three children, Jules, Marty and Liz, whose lives are thrown into despair and turmoil when their parents are killed in a car crash. The effects on their lives are still felt thirty four years later. The story runs from 1980 to 2014. The story follows them through grim boarding school, with Liz’s descent into drug addiction and destructive relationships. Jules develops a relationship with the enigmatic Alva, but she tends to avoid commitment and leaves him, only to seek reunion year later though she has married a famous, but pretentious and much older writer, a success in a field Jules only dreams about, but her husband is suffering from dementia and intensely jealous towards Jules too. Though headed towards a closing positive message, the book is relentlessly direct in its study of the long term effects of childhood trauma and inescapable grief. Sometimes the characters defy credibility, the three children all discover sexual relationships frightfully young, and the ageing writer Romanov, falling for his young adoring fan seems highly unlikely. Intense, often beautiful writing. Arthur Chappell