The Narrowboat Summer #BookReview #BriFri
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Last week, I reviewed Chariots of Fire to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Paris Olympics of 1924. Tina reviewed a historical novel set during the flood of 1953 in Norfolk, England, The Night of the Flood by Zoë Somerville.
Book: The Narrowboat Summer by Anne Youngson
Genre: Novel
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Publication date: 2021
Source: e-book borrowed from the library
Summary: Three women meet on a tow path of a canal. One owns the nearby narrowboat and an unruly dog. The second just got downsized from her management job. The third just left her husband to find out if the world has more to offer than her boring life.
Anastasia has been living on the canals for a lifetime and wants to be left alone to do that until her death. Her doctor, though, thinks he can stretch that life longer with an operation. In the meantime, what is Anastasia supposed to do with her dog and her only home, the boat?
Since Eve, the woman who just lost her job, and Sally, the one who just left her husband, are at sixes and sevens in their own lives, they hatch a plan. Eve and Sally will handle the narrowboat while Anastasia stays in Eve’s apartment to work out her medical journey.
Thoughts: I’ve been saving this book to read until the summer since it seemed like the perfect time. That worked well for me.
Exploring British canals by narrowboat was a YouTube rabbit hole that I went down during the pandemic. I shared my favorite channels in the summer of 2020. Narrowboat journeys inspired a couple of fantasy trips that summer — one to Banbury and one along the River Trent. With that background, I was primed for this novel set on some of the same canals that I traveled virtually on YouTube.
The narrowboating was fun, but the best part of this novel was the characters. Anastasia is feisty and cantankerous and prods people into being bolder than they think they are. Eve and Sally have wonderful midlife adventures to move them along in their life journeys. I also enjoyed the characters that they met along the canals, which tend to draw people who don’t quite fit with the mold that modern life demands.
Appeal: The Narrowboat Summer is a terrific way to travel by armchair through the midlands of England. I think most women of a certain age will enjoy reading about characters who have experienced a lot of life and are looking for something a little different for their next stage.
Have you read this book? What did you think?