Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin

Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction; 256 pages; Published by 4th Estate 02/03/23; Dimensions: 14.1 x 2.5 x 22.2 cm

The opening of this absolute gem of a book had my heart in my mouth. As I read on I felt so much compassion for the characters of this story of hope, survival and so many more themes running through this book.

The reader is presented with a narrative of three separate threads which I felt complimented each other perfectly. This review is rather tricky without mentioning the actual plot or any spoilers!

I have been intrigued by this little book for a while and it has been waiting patiently for me for about a year now. About a year ago my own life was being turned upside down again and I found myself seeking refuge.

I felt I was finally ready to read this one and did so in just a couple of hours as my book choice to go to bed with. This is a rather short book at 256 pages with very small pages with lots of space and reads at quite a fast pace.

I found the book to be beautifully written, thought provoking, easy to read and follow. Various themes are touched upon and for me it all worked and the light touches made it move at a good pace without dwelling on any particular theme for too long.

I love little hard backs such as this. The beautiful cover that has a very matte feel to it but then also has little shiny smooth flicks of water that catch in the light is a very nice touch.

The dust cover holds well to the book. With the cover removed the authors name and title is in the same shiny print as the flicks of water so if you had on a shelf with it out the cover this would still look pretty smart. There is quite a bright watery pattern printed on the inside of the hardback.

This is a debut novel and I rated it five stars on my Goodreads. I got just what I like and needed from a book in this book. Also the size, shape and feel of this book ticks all the boxes for me.