Rain Village

Rain Village by Carolyn Turgeon

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Unbridled Books (October 10, 2006)
ISBN-10: 1932961240

From Booklist

Tessa is a very small girl in a family of giants. And, much to her family's bewilderment and ridicule, she isn't cut out for farmwork. Instead, Tessa gets a job at the local library, where the enigmatic librarian, Mary, with her stories of the circus and potions for the lovelorn, takes Tessa under her wing and teaches her the art of trapeze flying. When life gets difficult at home and Mary unexpectedly drowns herself, Tessa escapes to the circus. Over time, Tessa finds a home among the circus performers, falls in love with a wonderful man, and becomes a mother. However, when a stranger comes around talking about Mary, all of Tessa's old feelings bubble back to the surface. She must decide between the life she knows or risk it all to follow this stranger, who can lead her to the place that may hold the secret to Mary's death. Turgeon's quirky first novel explores the power of secrets and how happiness is found in searching for truth. Carolyn Kubisz
Copyright © American Library Association.

Some time ago I read Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story (excellent book!) by Carolyn Turgeon, and although I am not a fan of "retold fairytales" I loved the story and the writing so I decided to see what else she wrote and found Rain Village.

This book covers incest and death, love , saddness and happiness.  I was surprised that I still managed to like the book.  Turgeons writing is quite good to make me read thru more horrors and sadness than I need to read about.

However.. I do have to say I was a little disappointed in the ending.  Not horribly, but it felt unfinished to me, I think I would have liked to known just a bit more...yet for all intent and purposes it was finished.

It's a good book... but I think it would not be for everyone.  I will however watch for more books by this author.