The Museum of Broken Promises by Elizabeth Buchan

 

Hardback:   406 pages      

Genre: Contemporary Literary Fiction                                            

Publisher: Corvus 2019

Source: Tywyn Public Library

First Sentence: A twenty year old girl with a bandaged hand waits on an Austrian station platform with a suitcase at her feet inside which is stuffed a rucksack but nothing else because it is only there for pretence.

Review Quote: 'Intricately plotted and beautifully written..will leave you yearning for Paris.' Katie Fforde

Main Character: Laure Carlyle, Curator and Owner of The Museum of Broken Promises.

Setting:  Paris, today and Prague 1985.

My Opinion: An author that in my opinion has over the twenty plus years I Have been reading her novels mastered the art of storytelling. Her stories draw me in and although this particular one is not always an easy read it is definitely a worthwhile one.

Laure Carlyle the protagonist of the story comes over as a remote young woman that is at times, hard to like.  Her obsession with her Museum of Broken Promises, where the exhibits are all about betrayal and loss, is all explained when the dual timeline takes us back to Prague and 1985. Czechoslovakia is under a strong communist regime and the Berlin Wall has not yet fallen and the twenty year old Laure falls in love.

A moving and beautifully written story of young love and determination in difficult circumstances. Recommended to anyone that wants to read a real story with depth.

Links to Previous Review:  Two Women in Rome

Précis Courtesy of Goodreads: The stunning new novel from bestselling Elizabeth Buchan. The Museum of Broken Promises is a beautiful, evocative love-story and a heart-breaking exploration of some of the darkest moments in European history.

Paris, today. The Museum of Broken Promises is a place of wonder and sadness, hope and loss. Every object in the museum has been donated - a cake tin, a wedding veil, a baby's shoe. And each represent a moment of grief or terrible betrayal. The museum is a place where people come to speak to the ghosts of the past and, sometimes, to lay them to rest. Laure, the owner and curator, has also hidden artefacts from her own painful youth amongst the objects on display.

Prague, 1985. Recovering from the sudden death of her father, Laure flees to Prague. But life behind the Iron Curtain is a complex thing: drab and grey yet charged with danger. Laure cannot begin to comprehend the dark, political currents that run beneath the surface of this communist city. Until, that is, she meets a young dissident musician. Her love for him will have terrible and unforeseen consequences. It is only years later, having created the museum, that Laure can make finally face up to her past and celebrate the passionate love which has directed her life.

Author Profile: 

Courtesy of Goodreads

Elizabeth spent her childhood moving home every three years – including living for brief periods in Egypt and Nigeria before moving to Guildford, York and Edinburgh.

After graduating from the University of Kent at Canterbury with a double honours degree in English and History, she began her career as a blurb writer at Penguin Books. This was a job which required the hide of a rhinoceros, a nimble mind and the – occasional – box of tissues. People tend to shout at blurb writers but they are resourceful creatures which she and the team proved by continuing to produce a stream of copy for back jackets through thick and thin. Looking back, it was a golden era. Not many people are paid to spend their time reading through the treasury which is Penguin Books and there was no better education. Later, after having married and producing two children, she moved on to become a fiction editor at Random House before leaving to write full time which was something she had always planned to do since childhood – when she was frequently caught reading under the bedclothes with a torch after being put to bed which gave both books and reading a deliciously subversive tinge.

It was not an easy decision to take the gamble but she has never regretted it. As a writer, she has travelled all over the world and one of the many pleasures of the book tour has been to meet readers of all ages and to share with them a mutual passion for books and reading. She is in touch on line with many of them.

Elizabeth Buchan’s short stories are broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and published in magazines. She has reviewed for The Times, the Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph and, currently, for the Daily Mail. She has chaired the Betty Trask and Desmond Elliott literary prizes, and twice been a judge for the Whitbread (now Costa) awards. She is a patron of the Guildford Book Festival, a co-founder of the Clapham Book Festival and a past Chairman of the Romantic Novelists’ Association.   Reproduced from Author's Official Website

Photograph, Trailer and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites.

Elizabeth Buchan - Author Website   Twitter Profile   Facebook - Elizabeth Buchan 

Amazon Author Page   Goodreads Author Profile