Monday 3 October 2011

Home


rainy, cool, temps 12

Home!!!!

We finally got here Saturday at about 3:30. Did the event in Sutton, as part of the Cultural Day in the town. Lou Nelson organized it and it was wonderful. Wretched weather - teemed down. Michael and I drove up from North Conway, after the event the night before at White Birch books.

rainy, but still beautiful drive through the White Mountains. At one stage we were driving through cloud. And as we made our way further north, the leaves turned more and more, until finally, in Northern Vermont, it was just breathtaking. As much as it was beautiful seeing so many other parts of this glorious continent, this is surly home. I could feel it in my DNA. It was as though my bones sang as we got closer and closer.

then finally, after the event, Michael drove us home. And before I entered I paused, one last time. To take that photo. Through that door was home.

And then we went in - and unpacked - and lay on the sofa and drank hot chocolates and talked and talked.

I'm so grateful for your company, your comments, your support with the book - always saying such kind things. And telling others. Almost everyone I met on tour said they'd heard about my books through a friend. I believe you're that friend.

And now, we can sleep.

11 comments:

Laura Fry said...

Just started A Trick of the Light yesterday. A friend recommended your books and I've blogged about them so the word is being passed around. :)

Bethy said...

My husband and I finished the entire series in 4 months. We miss our old friends at Three Pines!

Martha Paley Francescato said...

I thought you'd like to read my review (no plot summary here!)... maybe:
5.0 out of 5 stars "Not Waving But Drowning, " Recurring Theme in A Trick of The Light, August 31, 2011
By Martísima (Potomac, MD) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: A Trick of the Light: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel (Chief Inspector Gamache Novels) (Hardcover)
***
We enter the novel together with Clara Morrow, and follow her to the Musée d'Art Contemporain in Montréal for her solo show. This is "the end point of everything she'd worked toward, walked toward, all her life." And from here on the story develops in an engrossing manner.

I started reading it yesterday in the morning, as soon as it appeared in my Kindle, continued throughout the day, and at 11:30 PM read on for three hours, until I finished it.

There is a murder, of course, but it leads in directions that involve almost all the characters we are familiar with in Three Pines. In spite of the murder, or maybe because of it, the action focuses mostly on Clara's paintings. The descriptions are so vivid that we can almost see the paintings, especially the one of Ruth. We want to find out about the murderer, naturally, but throughout this book there are many other matters that grabbed my attention - the cleansing rituals, AA and its mission and the people involved, the art world and the art critics. I also became even closer to Myrna, Ruth, Olivier, Gabri, Clara and Peter, and also Reine-Marie and Armand Gamache, Annie and Beauvior. Their interactions are at the core of the plot as much as solving the murder.

Stevie Smith's poem "Not Waving But Drowning" runs throughout the novel and plays an essential role as it is connected to many of the events.

There are reunions, separations (some that made me suffer, truly!), but the ending makes up for everything. The trick of the light that showed a tiny dot in Clara's painting of Ruth (also the Virgin Mary) is seen again at the end - "a glint, a gleam." Hope. For Ruth, and also for the rest of the characters - and for us!

Colombine said...

Je viens tout juste de terminer "Le mois le plus cruel" et j'ai beaucoup aimé. The final is superb! J'ai adoré la façon d'aborder tout ça.

J'attendrai la 4e traduction avec impatience.

Merci Louise!

Anonymous said...

If you ever wonder where your words travel - This past year I have been battling my way through chemo, radiation, surgeries, etc. All is well now and my surgeon said the magic word: "Cured." The oncologist wrote "fully successful, no evidence of disease." I was accompanied on every visit by my friends from Three Pines and dear Inspector Gamache. A book is a good way to start a conversation and I am always quick to recommend the series to other patients. My husband, the sci-fi reader, got hooked on "A Trick of the Light" and read the series backwards! We thank you for giving us hours of escape from our worries! We look forward - patiently - for the next!

I cannot thank you enough for writing such wonderful stories. Each word, each phrase, each sentence is a treasure.
- Daisy in AZ

Jodi said...

"Home where my heart's escaping/
Home where my music's playing/
Home where my love lies waiting silently for me."

Barbara said...

Happy homecoming indeed. Your blue screen door is like ours in front, except that ours is a double door and it's white. I love the old-fashioned look of it. So glad you're home safe and well.

Linda Rodriguez said...

Happy homecoming, Louise! And congratulations on such a successful book tour! Now, rest and recuperate. Take care of yourself.

Jeanine Cronin said...

So happy you are home, safe and secure. I felt so honored to get to meet you in Concord as you began your tour and enjoyed getting to continue reading about the rest of it along the way.

I thought the review that Martha Paley Francescato wrote about A Trick of the Light was brilliant!

lil Gluckstern said...

It IS good to be home. Take this time to relish it. You've earned it. I'm so happy for you.

Geri said...

Louise, Am I mistaken or didn't you use the phrase " Trick of the Light" in one of the other books? The Brutal Telling?