Scott Alexander Howard

Fiction 2024 | 290 pages

In this debut novel by Scott Alexander Howard, an intriguing premise is set.  The valley where the townspeople live is surrounded by mountains. But the mountains are very unique.  If you pass over them to the east, you will be in the same town twenty years ahead in time.  If you pass over them to the west, you will be in the same town, 20 years behind current time.  More than anything, this book is about the rules, constraints, values, principles, policies, fears, and possible joys of “allowing” people or not allowing them to cross over.

I really enjoyed the first half of the book, where our main character, Odile Oxanne, is 16-years old and applying for apprenticeships.  She most wants to apprentice to a coveted Counseil position, a seat on the board that controls the borders.  Many think she can make it … she is smart, wise, a rational and emotional thinker.  Then her best friend Edme dies, and Odile withdraws from the apprenticeship education.

In Part Two we find Odile nearly 20 years later, where she serves as a gendarme, her dreams shattered.  I found Part Two sad, disappointing, and even depressing.  It became so hard for me read, that eventually I lost the plot line and could not figure out who was who.  Part Two transformed this book from four hearts to two hearts.  I cannot honestly recommend it.

Suggested by a book review in New Scientist, August 3, 2024.

September 2024