Sonderbooks Book Review of Nights of Rain and Stars

Reviewed October 26, 2004.
Dutton, New York, 2004. 294 pages.
Available at Sembach Library (F BIN).
Sonderbooks Stand-out 2004, #1, Literary Fiction

Maeve Binchy’s getting better and better! I’ve long enjoyed her books, but she’s surpassed herself with Nights of Rain and Stars.

The book opens on a hillside restaurant on a Greek island. In the bay below, a tragedy unfolds as a tour boat catches on fire. Andreas, the restaurant owner, and the world travelers who have climbed the hillside to his restaurant, watch in horror, knowing there is nothing they can do. Andreas suggests that they use his telephone to reassure people back home that they are all right, but all of the tourists are reluctant to do so.

The tourists, from Ireland, England, America, and Germany, are bound together by their experience. As they stay on in little Aghia Anna, their lives are entwined into the life of the town. We learn about the difficulties they left behind, and all make decisions that will change their lives.

This is a lovely and warm book, like the lovely and warm Greek countryside where it is set.

Reviews of other books by Maeve Binchy:

Quentins
Heart and Soul
Minding Frankie
A Week in Winter
Chestnut Street
A Few of the Girls
Maeve's Times

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Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund

******Nights of Rain and Stars*

by Maeve Binchy