Changes

I really enjoyed this book, which is very gently written - no fancy tricks or verbose language - just genuine, appealing characters in an emotional, compelling story. It's a story of discovery as we see Antonio discover many truths through the book - about his life, his marriage, his family and most especially his father and his father's family history.

There are lots of time-shifts within the book as we switch between Antonio's childhood, his later life and his teenage years. I sometimes find this sort of narrative device annoying and disruptive but here it worked very well, maintaining the pace of the story and keeping my interest piqued as more and more about Antonio and his family history is revealed. It's deftly handled, with no clumsy transitions, and gave the story a page-turner feel, but not in a trashy novel kind of way!