Do not miss me, because I will always be with you…I am the air, the moon, the stars. For we are all made of stars, my beloved... Wherever you look, I will be there.
Stella Carey exists in a world of night. Married to a soldier who has returned from Afghanistan injured in body and mind, she leaves the house every evening as Vincent locks himself away, along with the secrets he brought home from the war.
During her nursing shifts, Stella writes letters for her patients to their loved ones - some full of humour, love and practical advice, others steeped in regret or pain – and promises to post these messages after their deaths.
Until one night Stella writes the letter that could give her patient one last chance at redemption, if she delivers it in time…
Review: I engaged with the structure of this novel right away and so it meant that the moment i opened the first page, I was drawn into its depths. It was such a fab way to structure a story-these letters, people's last letters to mark the end of a chapter and the end of that particular characters section of the story. I also loved the fact that the story centres around 3 main characters and storylines and yet they are all linked together, all linked through the main character of the story-a nurse called Stella.
I like Stella as a character because she doesn't make a fuss. She gets on with what she has to do and copes with the tragedies that life throws at her without creating drama and without complaining why me all the time. She definitely made for an easy read. Hugh and Hope are similar, in a way. They too have had a fair amount of drama in their lives and a fair amount of bad stuff happen to them and yet they carry on with their lives too. Hugh could be considered to be the most dramatic of the trio and yet he is just about as unruffled as Stella. Hope was definitely my favourite of the three characters and I loved her storyline from start to finish!
The letters in this novel are just beautiful. The novel doesn't have a magnificent setting or a long time frame but the letter mean that you are taken deeper and deeper into this novel. Some letters are surprising, some are tragic, some are funny but all are beautiful and are so perfectly timed within the novel. They are a joy to read and inspired me to write my own letters! At points, I admit, I did find myself skimming over the letters to find out what was going to happen next to one of the characters, but I think perhaps one could go back and just read each letter separately to find out what each one holds in its own right!
Overall, it took me a while to get through this book but that's partly because I wanted to give it the time and attention that it deserved. I loved the characters, the plot and particularly the structure of this novel. I think it is something that could be picked up at any time of year like a timeless classic and I think the letters could almost be a book in themselves-beautiful!
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