Lead Review
- Book: Chasing the Stars
- Location: Scandinavia
- Author: Virginie Grimaldi
Anna lives in France with her two teenage daughters, Lily and Chloe. Their dad Mathias has been banished to Marseille, for good reason, and Anna is dignified in the way she handles the ending of the couple relationship with the children.
But life for this small family is skewed. Anna works long hours at a restaurant and earns very little, and both Chloe and Lily are struggling with their school lives: one wants to give up learning and has a great need to be loved (which manifests in finding rather unsuitable liaisons), and the other is fighting off the bullies. The debts are mounting and Anna is struggling to cope. The bailiffs are at the door.
By chance Anna gets herself a pay-off and rather than settle her debts, she decides to borrow a camper van and set off on a journey to bond with her girls. Nanny (her grandmother) fires her up by suggesting she takes Grandpa’s ashes and scatter them at the point where The Northern Lights can be seen.
The girls really aren’t taken by the idea of a madcap adventure but have no choice but to join their mother on this trip of a lifetime. Their father makes a feeble attempt to gain custody of his daughters, as Anna heads into the unknown, picking up an entourage of other camper van drivers, all heading north.
This is a story very much about growing up but it is about motherhood and finding one’s way in life. It is also about friends and the lessons we can learn from each other. Life is, in many ways, like a bus and it is up to us whom we choose to join us on the bus for the ride. The quality of people we choose will influence our experience and bring out the best in us (or, regrettably, the worst). It is an outward-looking story, perceptive, wry at times, charming and very much a read for those who enjoyed A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce.
As the travellers stop along the way, the reader gets a nice sense of the beauty and points of interest along their route. heading North through Scandinavia.
At first I thought it was a little frothy and aimed at the teenage reader, but I soon became involved in the uplifting message that the author so clearly and warmly delivers. Recommended.
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