Pick the best book I've read this month? Well that's easy. It has to be The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy. When I started it I had no idea that it would turn out to be the sort of book that would make me worry about the characters. This doesn't happen to me very often. I can read books without becoming emotionally involved with the characters, but not this one.
You can read my first thoughts about the novel when I finished it here.
The ending is good, not only because the pace picks up at an alarming rate, but because Hardy doesn't let you get so carried away with the change in direction that you forget about the consequences of the events. He doesn't let you forget that the something that is good for one person isn't always good for everyone else. Some people get left behind. I think that it is this sort of ending that gives the novel a greater depth.
Would I read it again? Without doubt.
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