The Girl on the Cliff: A Novel (English Edition)

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		The Girl on the Cliff: A Novel (English Edition)
		The Girl on the Cliff: A Novel (English Edition)

From the author of the #1 international bestseller The Orchid House, the mesmerizing story of two Irish families entangled by a tragic past that seems destined to repeat itself

To escape a recent heartbreak in New York, Grania Ryan returns to her family home on the rugged, wind-swept coast of Ireland. Here, on the cliff edge in the middle of a storm, she meets a young girl, Aurora Lisle, who will profoundly change her life.

Despite the warnings Grania receives from her mother to be wary of the Lisle family, Aurora and Grania forge a close friendship. Through a trove of old family letters dating from 1914, Grania begins to learn just how deeply their families’ histories are entwined. The horrors of World War I, the fate of a beautiful foundling child, and the irresistible lure of the ballet give rise to a legacy of heartache that leaves its imprint on each new generation. Ultimately, it will be Aurora whose intuition and spirit may be able to unlock the chains of the past.

Sweeping from Edwardian England to present-day New York, from the majestic Irish coast to the crumbling splendor of a legendary London town house, The Girl on the Cliff introduces two remarkable women whose quest to understand their past sends them toward a future where love can triumph over loss.

网友对The Girl on the Cliff: A Novel (English Edition)的评论

买了这本小说的德语版后又想买英文版
书的质量不错 很好

My review is in 2 parts, first for the story itself and next for the cultural-linguistic blunders that occur throughout the book.

Part 1: The story was rich and detailed and kept my interest throughout the 400 pages until the mystical, touching ending. Some things were predictable while others I found shocking. I enjoyed the atmospheric descriptions of the Irish cliffs as well as the emotional insights Riley sprinkles throughout the book. I felt a connection with Mary, but most of the other characters didn't really move me. The character of Matt is a complete idiot, possibly the biggest pansy of a "hero" I've read in a contemporary novel. Even more grating is his ridiculous, inauthentic manner of speaking. Riley simply doesn't know how to write natural American dialogue. Her American characters say things that no real American would ever say, which brings me to Part 2 of this review.

Part 2: Lucinda Riley should never ever write anything about the United States ever again. Period. Her complete lack of understanding of American vernacular is embarrassing. Even more embarrassing is how her constant gaffes weren't caught by her supposedly professional editors. (Examples: How's it hanging? That's real perfect. I wish I knew what I was meant to have done. Etc.) The last straw for me was when one of her characters returns from a business trip in New York City and complains about the "plastic American food." Seriously, Ms. Riley? Are you a country bumpkin? New York City is world renowned for its cuisine. You can't walk down the street in New York without discovering a culinary gem whether it's as simple as brick oven pizza or as sophisticated as Chardonnay-infused seafood risotto. Here's some American slang for you: get a clue.

I have read many books written by Lucinda Riley and I have loved each of them. This one, however, fell a little short for me. Parts of it felt a little too Hallmark. By this, I mean that some things seemed a little too tidy and unrealistic. Unlike Riley's other novels, I found myself rolling my eyes at some points during this book. After much suspense regarding Grania's reason for leaving Matt, I wanted to strangle her when this motive was finally revealed. Also, why would Grania give up so much of her life for people she hardly knows and likewise, how could they trust her so whole-heartedly? Further, the swiftness with which the novel was ended irritated me greatly and I hated the vagueness surrounding Aurora's fate.

I sincerely can't fathom the depths Ms Riley draws from to write the enchanting novels she has produced. Having lived a full 77 years, I fully become lost in her beautiful and inspiring prose. Since I was a very small child I have been a serious reader. I highly recommend all of Ms. Riley's books to everyone who loves to read as I do.

I am not sure if I liked or disliked this book....
Elements of a great story were definitely there; how the past repeats itself, the things people will do for children, love and pride.
The book jumps across 4 generations of 2 families, although the main story line follows Grania: a 30 something New York sculptor who has a miscarriage and leaves her boyfriend to go home to Ireland to wallow. We dont know why she leaves until the last quarter of the book and it was not worth the wait.
The book is told from many perspectives and there is a lot going on, just when you start to get into one of the stories it switches and to me if felt like Lucinda Riley was trying to cover too many things in one book.
I found people died conveniently all over the place, characters were introduced in detail and then forgotten for the rest of the book. The elements that would have made this book really good were skimmed over and almost handled flippantly.
The parts of the book that are written by "the girl on the cliff" Aurora were annoying and confused and I found that the way her inserts were used as leads into different stories was an unnecessary addition. For example Grania is given some old letters to read from her mother that her grandmother wrote, but we do not get to read the letters, instead Aurora retells the story. Little things like that grated me a bit and so for me the "letters" were not needed and Grania could have heard the story from her mother...or the book could have just been split into dated sections like other books.

I enjoyed the book in that I finished reading it - but it did not keep me up at night turning pages but I would not read another Lucinda Riley book nor would I recommend it to anyone who is after anything more than a beach read.

Riley tells a good story, but this is not as good as <I>The Orchid House</I> or <I>The Lavender Garden.</I> The book takes much too long to explain why the protagonist, Grania, left her lover, Matt, in New York to return to Ireland, undermining the strength of her character. I did not like the "frame," where the older Aurora, who as a little girl is central to the story, addresses the reader directly--sometimes this technique works, but it seemed distracting here. One two-page entry describing "the most beautiful man [Grania had] ever met" and then his self-introduction as "Alexander Devonshire" was so romance-novel stereotypical that I read it aloud to my long-suffering husband and laughed about it. Most distressing (almost comical) is the author's take on how Americans speak (repeated instances of "How's it hanging?" and using "real" as an intensifier, as in "she'll be real mad," among other things), which makes the book seem inaccurate and dated. The end and denouement seemed less well-written and edited than the rest of the book, which was also true of <I>The Orchid House.</I> Nevertheless, it's a good yarn. The descriptions of Ireland are lovely and the intertwining of different time periods is one of Riley's great strengths. If you liked Riley's other two books, you'll probably like this one, in spite of its faults--I did.

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