Sunday, January 27, 2013

The Copper Beech by Maeve Binchy

Started: 12/28/12
Finished: 1/15/13
Year: 1992
Pages: 391
Grade: B
Genre: Literary fiction
Reason for reading: grabbed off TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "In the Irish town of Shancarrig, the young people carve their intials-and those of their loves- into the copper beech tree in front of the schoolhouse. But not even Father Gunn, the parish priest, who knows most of what goes on being Shancarrig's closed doors, or Dr. Jims, the village doctor, who knows all the rest, realizes that not everything in the placid village is what it seems.
"Unexpected passions and fears are bringing together the lives of many such as the sensitive new priest and Miss Ross, the slight, beautiful school teacher...Leonora, the privileged daughter of the town's richest family and Foxy Dunne, whose father did time in jail...and Nessa Ryan, whose parents run Ryan's Hotel, and two very different young men. For now the secrets in Shancarrig's shadows are starting to be revealed, from innocent vanities and hidden loves to crimes of the heart...and even to murder."
Opinion: Each chapter was about a different character in the small village. In each chapter, I became more and more interested in all of them despite their very obvious differences.