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Having just visited Pompeii earlier this year, I decided to read this book, and I was enthralled. The characters seem so real, especially that of Pliny the Elder (uncle of the more […]
I’d like to start my review by mentioning all the positive things about this series, which keeps me reading. GRRM has created compelling characters in Sansa, Arya, Jon Snow, Jaime Lannister, Tyrion […]
When did you know you wanted to be a writer? Not until fairly late in life (at the age of 43). Prior to that, I’d been a violinist and then a cognitive […]
Lady Cecylee Neville (1415-1495) was born a few months before King Henry V’s glorious victory at Agincourt. When she was nine years old, she was betrothed to Richard, Duke of York, a […]
It is 1921, when the novel opens. Here is an elegant lady (who could be ANGELINA, but costumed by Chanel) dressed to the nines for a walk outside. Notice how her outfit sits […]
I can see why people have problems with this volume of A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, titled A FEAST FOR CROWS. We spend a great deal of time in the company […]
In A STORM OF SWORDS George Martin shows how ruthless a truly great author has to be, for in this volume we come across the infamous Red Wedding. Those of you who […]
What was your favorite scene to write in Farewell My Life? The last scene of Part 1, when Russell is unmasked. What was the most difficult scene to write? The very last […]
You have five seconds to tell us who the greatest author of all time is. In your opinion, who would that be? Vladimir Nabokov, whose dark humor captures the atmosphere of 1920s […]
It is 1914, just before World War I and here is an elegant lady with her greyhound (costumed by Chanel). Notice how clean & modern the lines are. Yes that is a […]
“Farewell My Life is a period drama in the form of a book, but the early 1920s form so much more than just a set piece to watch the lives of characters unfold. Every person in the book is masterfully shaped by the era, showing both prejudices, which would be overcome by living in the modern-day and inner strength and drive to claim what one wants that has existed throughout time. By not shying away from either, the author has made a masterpiece, one readers can easily lose themselves in. As the book sweeps on, Grace is brought from Georgetown to post-war Berlin, where she pursues her own passions to become a violinist, before being thrown into the middle of family strife she had no notion existed even the day before she became the center of it. It is an intimate epic, an image of the minutiae of lives spelled out against the vastness of family history.”
“The author…adeptly summons the era in all its manners and details with her descriptive prose…Her omniscient, third-person narrator effectively flits through the heads of various characters, offering momentary glimpses of their inner lives.”
“After reading Cynthia Sally Haggard’s Thwarted Queen Saga, I was looking forward to her newest release, Farewell My Life. I was not disappointed. She has a special talent of transporting her readers back in time, feel as though they are part of the story, and living in that moment in history.
Farewell My Life gets a very well deserved five plus stars from me. I highly recommend it and plan on reading it again in the near future. It is definitely a keeper. “
