Tasteful, elegant, and complex… Masterfully drawn.
Carrier’s third installment in The Riven Country Series spins a tale of love, obsession, and madness, winding through the streets of Paris to a demesne in Ireland, and Devils Tower in Wyoming’s Black Hills. Things are looking up for Sebastian, Senga’s Danish lover, who is in his home country for his photography exhibit, centering on “Intuitive Portraits” of Senga. But a startling entrance and incident at the Paris exhibition threatens to shatter his peace of mind. Meanwhile, Senga is forced to pay the price for her ability to see what others cannot after a series thread of magical realism follows her to Ireland. Senga has aged twenty years since Carrier introduced her to readers in the first book, and despite her change of circumstances, readers will find her voice is still intact, as is Carrier’s ability to structure her characters without losing their innermost essences. Though obsession and madness rule a significant portion of the storyline, this is a story with psychological meat, that of love, what it means to be attentive, and the relationships among free will and forced obligations. Those familiar with Carrier’s earlier books in the series will welcome the return of the lovely Stricklands, the endearing pair of Gabe and Francesca, the Two Bears and their adopted son, Joe. There’s plenty of psychological depth here, and the novel can be read as a standalone but new reader will be better off reading the series in order to get a better grasp of Senga’s world. Lyrically written, poignant, and wholly transporting, the novel is sure to delight lovers of literary fiction.
THE SIMPLER
Book III of The Riven Country Series
By Renée Carrier
Braeburn Croft
Pub date December 2, 2020
ISBN 978-1734043723
Price $7.74 (USD) Kindle edition, $16.00 Paperback
