Another Life - Jodie Chapman

 

She could be the girl dancing on tables one night, and the next she'd be hiding in the shadows.

Just when I thought I understood her, she would melt away and become a completely new person, and I'd have to start all over again.

That's how it was with Anna.

_______

Nick and Anna work the same summer job at their local cinema. Anna is mysterious, beautiful, and from a very different world to Nick.

She's grown up preparing for the end of days, in a tightly-controlled existence where Christmas, getting drunk and sex before marriage are all off-limits.

So when Nick comes into her life, Anna falls passionately in love. Their shared world burns with poetry and music, cigarettes and conversation - hints of the people they hope to become.

But Anna, on the cusp of adulthood, is afraid to give up everything she's ever believed in, and everyone she's ever loved. She walks away, and Nick doesn't stop her.

Years later, a tragedy draws Anna back into Nick's life.

My Review:

This debut from Jodie Chapman combines love, family, belief, restrictions, and self-awareness. It is the ultimate love story of Nick and Anna, spanning decades. It isn’t the boy meets girl straight forward romance, it’s lust and desire mixed with commitment, sacrifice and doing what is believed to be right.

For Anna, the problem is her strictly religious family of Jehovah’s Witnesses, a family she both loves and respects as well as one that provides restrictions, for example for her to be in an unmarried relationship, more so with a non-believer, would not be tolerated. Although Anna is torn, Nick knows he cannot stand in her way, the path she has accepted, and done so without any protest.

Nick is an interesting and somewhat charming character. With traumatic events darkening his early years, Nick seeks love, he craves the familiarity of having someone who cares for him with no expectations or questions, who will understand the struggles he has, the difficulties which hold him back.

 I thought the insight into Annas life as a Jehovah’s Witness point of view, was brilliant and not something I had too much knowledge on. I think the complexity of what Anna felt was carefully shown throughout, a clear struggle between what she wanted and what she thought she should do.

A book full of emotion, it resonated with me and stayed with me long after finishing. It’s very well written, and hard to believe this is Jodie’s first novel. Refreshing to see the story from a male point of view. Expect a book that will tear your heart into pieces, put it together to break it open again.

Highly recommended.

Available to purchase HERE