This is definitely one of the top three most beautiful books I have read this year. Not only is it well written, but it is well researched and really makes you think without making you struggle to do so. As I haven’t read any of the award winners for which this book was nominated, I can’t say my theory holds that the nominees are generally better than the winners, but that’s still my gut response.
Not that you would want to, because the book is fairly deceptively complicated, but if you had to sum it up in one line it would be the following:
“Sometimes you had to be who you were and endure what happened to you, and to you alone, before you could understand the first thing about it.” (67)
This is definitely one of the themes of the book, along with acceptance and surviving and any other number of things. And it doesn’t just have to do with Wayne/Annabel, but with Thomasina, Wally, Jacinta, and Treadway. And any of the other countless people who lived in Croydon Harbor and are survivors.
I knew Michael Cunningham could write a great novel, especially one that could be adapted to the screen, like A Home at the End of the World and The Hours, but I didn’t know how great of a novel he could write! This book definitely belongs in the Top 5 Books I’ve read in 2012. It also counts towards my 
My original plan was to go right into reading another book from my Mount TBR challenge list, but as I’m on a stay-cation at Tom’s parents and I didn’t bring the book I had to do some fast thinking on what I could read. I looked through the local library Kindle books and didn’t find anything and remembered I had a NetGalley waiting that would be a light, fun read. I’m definitely glad I decided to read it. It also doesn’t hurt that I feel justified reading a ‘fun’ book as it’s a galley I wanted to review and I’m not just faffing about.
Lucky you, fellow bloggers, two Lunch Break Interlude posts within a two-week span! The writing bug has clearly infested my brain, as by the time this posts I will have pre-scheduled three weeks of consecutive posts, dating all the way back to my first piece about Anne Brontë!