Coincidence by J. W. Ironmonger – 304 pages
Book Blurb:
On Midsummer’s Day, 1982, at the age of three, Azalea was found wandering a fairground in England, alone, too young to explain what had happened to her or her parents. After a brief investigation, she was declared a ward of the court, and placed in foster care. The following year, the body of a woman-her mother-was found on a nearby beach, but by then everyone had forgotten about the little girl, and no connection was ever made. The couple who adopted Azalea brought her to Africa, where-on Midsummer’s Day, 1992-they were killed in a Ugandan uprising while trying to protect their children. Azalea is spared on that day, but as she grows into adulthood, she discovers that her life has been shaped by an uncanny set of coincidences-all of them leading back to her birth mother, a single mother on the Isle of Man, and the three men who could have been her father, each of whom has played an improbable but very real role in her fate. Troubled by what she has uncovered-and increasingly convinced that she, too, will meet her fate on Midsummer’s Day-she approaches Thomas Post, a rational-minded academic whose specialty is debunking our belief in coincidence: the belief that certain events are linked, even predestined, by the hands of fate. Even as they fall in love, Thomas tries to help to understand her past as a series of random events-not a divinely predetermined order. Yet as the fateful date draws closer, Thomas begins to fear that he may lose her altogether, and she may throw herself into the very fate she fears.
My review: 4 stars
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Well, I stayed up until 3:30 am to finish this book so I guess that means I liked it a lot. This book was fascinating and I think it would attract more readers had the cover been different. For those of you who judge a book by its cover or its title, please don’t for this book. This book had a romantic edge underneath the more philosophical plot of coincidence, fate, destiny, predetermination and luck. It would be an excellent discussion book so I highly suggest it for book clubs. This book is heavy in characters and settings but the author does a seamless job of weaving all of it together, taking us from the Isle of Man to the university in England to the jungles of Uganda and then back again. Well done!
Quotes I liked:
We don’t often think of laughter as a means of communication”… “This laugh was a cruel polemic; it was a sermon in sound.”
– “Depression is the enemy of action.”
– “If everything happens for a reason, then there must be a planner.”
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