Book review: Madame Burova
Isn't this a pretty cover? It's a gorgeous book inside too. Let me tell you briefly what it's about.
Madame Burova, tarot reader, palmist and clairvoyant, is retiring and saying goodbye to her booth on Brighton's seafront after fifty years.
She has spent all her life keeping other people's secrets and her silence has come at a price. She has seen them all, the good, the not so good, lovers, liars, angels, devils, dreamers and fools. Her cards unmasked them all and of course, Imelda Burova's cards never lied.
After all these years though, she has grown weary of other people's lives and secrets, she wants rest and a life for herself. Before that can happen though, she must fulfil a promise made long, long ago and that involves two brown envelopes that she must deliver.
In London, there is another woman who is also making a fresh start. Billie has lost her university job, her marriage and her place in the world when she discovers something that questions her very identity. She has to find answers and discovers she must follow a trail. It might just lead to Madame Burova's door......
This story spans over fifty years, it's a glorious world of 1970s holiday camps, seaside entertainers, eccentrics, heroes and villains. If you remember that era, then you'll delight in all the memories it brings back, if you weren't born then, you'll love the scenes Ruth Hogan conjures up in pictures through her evocative writing. It's a beautiful read, but beware - you won't want to put it down until you reach the end.....
Published by John Murray Press RRP Hardcover £12.99. Available in all good bookshops and online.
I received a copy of the book in return for an honest review
Return to features index HERE
Madame Burova, tarot reader, palmist and clairvoyant, is retiring and saying goodbye to her booth on Brighton's seafront after fifty years.
She has spent all her life keeping other people's secrets and her silence has come at a price. She has seen them all, the good, the not so good, lovers, liars, angels, devils, dreamers and fools. Her cards unmasked them all and of course, Imelda Burova's cards never lied.
After all these years though, she has grown weary of other people's lives and secrets, she wants rest and a life for herself. Before that can happen though, she must fulfil a promise made long, long ago and that involves two brown envelopes that she must deliver.
In London, there is another woman who is also making a fresh start. Billie has lost her university job, her marriage and her place in the world when she discovers something that questions her very identity. She has to find answers and discovers she must follow a trail. It might just lead to Madame Burova's door......
This story spans over fifty years, it's a glorious world of 1970s holiday camps, seaside entertainers, eccentrics, heroes and villains. If you remember that era, then you'll delight in all the memories it brings back, if you weren't born then, you'll love the scenes Ruth Hogan conjures up in pictures through her evocative writing. It's a beautiful read, but beware - you won't want to put it down until you reach the end.....
Published by John Murray Press RRP Hardcover £12.99. Available in all good bookshops and online.
I received a copy of the book in return for an honest review
Return to features index HERE