This Must Be the Place.

This Must Be The Place is a story about a marriage and the families surrounding it. 

Daniel Sullivan is a linguistics professor from Brooklyn who had returned to his ancestral Ireland to scatter his grandfather's ashes. Whilst doing so, in a remote part of the country, he has a chance meeting with Claudette and her son Ari. Claudette was a highly successful film actress until she staged her own disappearance, now she lives in seclusion with Ari in rural Ireland. 

Following their chance meeting Daniel and Claudette marry and it is their marriage that is central to the story. As the book progresses it looks back in time (and also into the future) and this is how we learn about the characters and the situations that they are currently in.

This book is cleverly plotted and the prose is beautifully written but I felt that the constant switching of characters and time frames made the book feel disjointed. At times it was almost as if I were reading a series of interlocking short stories rather than a novel. There were also a lot of characters involved here and I found myself having to flick back and forth to remember who they all were.

 Maggie O'Farrell has a loyal readership and although I can appreciate the quality of her writing - she is certainly an accomplished wordsmith - I have never been a big fan of hers. 

This Must Be the Place has had wonderful reviews (which was partly why I picked it up) but I honestly didn't enjoy it all that much. I thought that the storyline of Claudette, her disappearance and seclusion were too far fetched and this made the whole book seem somewhat hollow. 

It took me a long, long time to finish this story and when I did I set it aside with a sense of relief.

If you enjoy Maggie O'Farrell I'm sure you will love this but I didn't find it to be a satisfying or truly enjoyable read.