Somebody Else’s Daughter by Elizabeth Brundage
When Nate was young, he lived as a junkie in San Francisco with his partner Cat and their small daughter Willa. When Cat’s AIDS begins to kill her in earnest, she decides they will have to give Willa up for adoption.
Fast forward to Willa’s high school years. Nate has cleaned up and misses his daughter, so he decides to teach at her school without telling anyone of his connection to her.
I expected Nate to be the narrator of the book, perhaps Willa and her parents as well. Instead, Brundage has a broad range of narrators, including Claire and her son Teddy who have recently returned to the area, Willa and her parents, and the wife of the headmaster of the school. At times this method seemed somewhat over ambitious, like the story could have been crisper if it wasn’t dealing with everyone in the community’s intensely screwed-up lives. However, by the end of the book, I realized that Brundage was bringing all the storylines into a cohesive ending that really worked.
It definitely took me awhile to get into “Somebody Else’s Daughter,” but once I did i was very pleased with the way the story was told.
Buy “Somebody Else’s Daughter” on Amazon.
Would you like to read more reviews? Here are the remaining stops on this blog tour:
Thursday, November 13th: All Thumbs Reviews
Friday, November 14th: Welcome to My Brain
Monday, November 17th: 1 More Chapter
Wednesday, November 19th: My New Reality
Friday, November 21st: Bloggin’ ‘Bout Books
Tuesday, November 25th: The Friendly Book Nook (Author Interview)
Monday, December 1st: The 3 R’s: Reading, ‘Riting, and Randomness (this review will also appear as a guest post on Books on the Brain)
Tuesday, December 2nd: Bookroom Reviews
Thursday, December 4th: Pieces of Me
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Knowing that it comes together at the end, I think I could deal with the awkward beginning.
I totally agree – this book to A WHILE to get into. But once I did, it was very good.
Great review. It is always good to have a head’s up that a book does come together in the end.
Thank you.
Nice review! everyone seems to think really good about this book
I thought Nate was the narrator, too!
I agree about the beginning and the ambitiousness. Thanks for this review.
I like stories with multiple POVs … IF they come together in the end! It sounds like Brundage did a good job pulling them in.
Sounds like an interesting book. I’m curious to see how she connects all the stories. I’ll have to check this one out.
I liked the different POVs here.
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Someone Else’s Daughter by Elizabeth Brundage
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