Adam Thorpe – Pieces of Light

Just six of us met to discuss this book, with additional input from two ‘roving’ members and one ‘abstainer’. It was a mixed response which made for an interesting discussion. Those of us who have read and loved Adam Thorpe before (including Ulverton) all enjoyed this book, as did some of us who were new to his work.

In summary the results for this book are:
4 liked it
3 didn’t start it
1 didn’t like it
1 was not sure

This is a long book and it is quite a hard read and that itself put three of our group off reading it at all. Another felt she would not finish it. One member, though, read it twice: once to get the gist of it and a second time with the benefit of that she felt a better understanding for the story and the characters. Knowing the ending doesn’t spoil the experience and it helps to give clarity to the story.

It is easy to get lost and confused but, even the dissenters came round to thinking that this book is a very rich read, that offers a lot to the reader who perseveres!

The story starts and finishes in Africa, with the authors fictional town of Ulverton (England) in the middle and focuses on the life of a boy whose wonderful childhood did not continue into a wonderful adulthood.

We all agreed this book would make a great film.

Would we recommend it? We felt that even if you don’t want to/can’t read it all then the first half of the book is really worth a try. So if that can be considered a recommendation then: YES!

Our next book is The Universe versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence. We will meet next year, on January 17th 2019 at 8pm in The Hundred. Please come along and join our New Year conversation.