The World Before Us: A Novel, by Aislinn Hunter
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The World Before Us: A Novel, by Aislinn Hunter
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In the tradition of A. S. Byatt's Possession, a hauntingly poignant novel about madness, loss, and the ties that bind our past to our present Deep in the woods of northern England, somewhere between a dilapidated estate and an abandoned Victorian asylum, fifteen-year-old Jane Standen lived through a nightmare. She was babysitting a sweet young girl named Lily, and in one fleeting moment, lost her. The little girl was never found, leaving her family and Jane devastated. Twenty years later, Jane is an archivist at a small London museum that is about to close for lack of funding. As a final research project--an endeavor inspired in part by her painful past--Jane surveys the archives for information related to another missing person: a woman who disappeared over one hundred years ago in the same woods where Lily was lost. As Jane pieces moments in history together, a portrait of a fascinating group of people starts to unfurl. Inexplicably tied to the mysterious disappearance of long ago, Jane finds tender details of their lives at the country estate and in the asylum that are linked to her own heartbroken world, and their story from all those years ago may now help Jane find a way to move on. In riveting, beautiful prose, The World Before Us explores the powerful notion that history is a closely connected part of us--kept alive by the resonance of our daily choices--reminding us of the possibility that we are less alone than we might think.
The World Before Us: A Novel, by Aislinn Hunter- Amazon Sales Rank: #604120 in Books
- Brand: Hunter, Aislinn
- Published on: 2015-03-31
- Released on: 2015-03-31
- Format: Deckle Edge
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.50" h x 1.12" w x 6.62" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 368 pages
Review An NPR Best Book of the Year Selection"A complex, subtle, and utterly haunting meditation on memory, history, and mortality. This book is magnificent."—Emily St. John Mandel, author of National Book Award Finalist and New York Times Bestseller Station Eleven"Daring and mesmerizing. A haunting, irresistible story and an urgent mystery about what it means to pass through this life. Hunter has a poet's eye and ear, and she goes after the elusive - the waywardness of memory, the grief of random loss, the yearning of existence - in an unfolding drama that is absorbing, luminous and powerfully human."—Alison MacLeod, Man Booker Prize-nominated author of Unexploded “Haunting…a compelling exploration of how memory shapes and is shaped by individuals and society.” —Kirkus“Haunting…an emotionally and intellectually satisfying journey in the manner of A.S. Byatt’s Possession…[The World Before Us] movingly dramatizes how unknowable the past can be.” – Publishers Weekly "The World Before Us is a powerful balancing act...It is a novel of considerable beauty, threaded with violence and pain, a melancholic book with moments of grace and joy. It is a thought-provoking novel, haunting and haunted, rooted in the power of history and of the individuals within it, and outside it. Reminiscent of A.S. Byatt’s Possession, it is the sort of novel which forces you to look at the world – the people around you, the objects they hold dear – in a different light."—Globe and Mail“An ambitious new novel about the vitality of objects and history’s knack for bleeding into the present. Intricate in both expression and construction, and dense in thematic implication, The World Before Us cleverly innovates while tipping a nod to classic Gothic tropes: dynastic rivalries, crumbling country houses, madhouses and vanished girls. Hunter is less tempted by spooky thrills than the chance to explore ways in which human affection resonates across time.”—National Post"A haunting tale of loss and reconciliation...The novel's three timelines are deftly woven together, illustrating the ways life takes on meaning even through objects and places. Hunter refers to history as 'a shifting trickster' and uses that premise to hook readers, as they...embark on a quest for meaning and truth in the face of tragedy."— Chatelaine"Intricately composed and gripping…With The World Before Us, [Hunter] has created her most ambitious and original work.”—Quill and Quire “Once in a rare while a novel comes along to remind us of what great fiction can do: creating a world so sublimely felt that, for the hours we spend reading, we are lifted out of our own lives, and when we return we find ourselves immeasurably altered and enriched. The World Before Us by Aislinn Hunter is such a novel. It is a brilliant work of humanity and imagination, artful and breathtakingly beautiful, and it will continue to haunt long after you have finished reading.” —Helen Humphreys, author of The Lost Garden and Coventry"A richly layered narrative harmonizing the past and present, dissolving the boundaries of time frames and showing the possible conneciton between people and places and objects...The World Before Us is a well-constructed and thoughtful novel on serious subjects. The historical detail never overwhelms; instead it brings alive the past and shows the seamlessness of past and present, espeically the human need for contact, which transcends time and place."—The Vancouver SunPraise for Aislinn Hunter's Stay"Stay's rigorous examination of the relationship between colonialism, globalization, and identity places it in the company of Michael Ondaatje . . . Controlled, smart, and humane."—Quill and Quire"For all the complexity in Hunter's rich book . . . there is also a minute attention to detail and an elegance in the natural dialogue. Hunter hangs ideas on you, ideas you want to stop and think about, in such a subtle, tender way."—Michelle Berry, Globe and Mail
About the Author AISLINN HUNTER is the author of an acclaimed collection of stories, two collections of highly-praised and award-winning poetry, and the novel Stay which was recently made in to a feature film. Having lived in the UK while researching her Ph.D., Hunter now lives and teaches in Vancouver, British Columbia. The World Before Us is her US debut.
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Most helpful customer reviews
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful. Lovely, but too complicated for no good reason By A. J Terry When Jane Standen was 15, and a temporary nanny for a 5-year-old girl named Lily, Lily permanently disappeared during a walk in the woods. When the novel begins Jane is 34, and about to lose her job because the natural history museum where she works as an archivist ran out of funds. Jane is still racked with guilt over Lily's disappearance. In the course of her research, Jane discovers that a woman known only as N disappeared in the same woods in 1877, more than a century earlier. N and two men had walked away from a local lunatic asylum, and only the men returned.Naturally I assumed that this book would focus on discovering why and how these two people disappeared, and whether and how the two disappearances were connected. Probably in some supernatural way, because several narrative voices turn out to be those of deceased inmates of the asylum. Unfortunately, solving the mysteries is not the focus; they are never really resolved. Instead, the book is a kind of meandering poetic exercise in multiple timelines, narrators, and side stories about the local village and villagers. The language is beautiful, but it's a difficult book. To me there seems to be no reason why it could not have been equally beautiful but more comprehensible and with a satisfying plot. The ingredients are all there but they are not as well combined as they could have been.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful. Haunted by Ghosts of the Past By Blake Fraina Aislinn Hunter’s lovely novel, The World Before Us, is a melancholic meditation on the act of remembering. Hunter shows how holding onto the past - preserving it in aspic - can become a prison.Jane Standen, the book’s protagonist, has lived her entire adult life under the shadow of a terrible incident from her youth, wherein Lily, a young girl she was watching, goes missing in the woods and is never seen again. As an adult, she works, somewhat appropriately, as an archivist in a small, eccentric London museum (likely modeled on the Sir John Soane Museum near London’s Holborn district), a private residence converted into a public assemblage of curiosities curated by a wealthy Victorian gentleman. Her life is at a dead end, as her attempts at scholarly writing have stalled and the museum is closing due to lack of funds. It’s evident that she has been unable to move on from the defining tragedy of her youth.In addition to her work at the museum, Jane has long been investigating the disappearance of a young woman that occurred, some 100 years earlier, in the same forest [on the grounds of a long ago shuttered asylum] where Lily was lost. The reader has the sense that, in attempting to solve this mystery, Jane is seeking to remedy something in her own painful history.When I chose this book, nothing suggested to me that it would include a supernatural element, so I was a bit confused and pleasantly surprised to find the story being narrated, in part, by a group of ethereal beings who follow and observe Jane as she researches the asylum, its environs, history, patrons and residents. These observers don’t seem to know who they were in life and, at the outset, neither does the reader. Through a combination of Jane’s findings, flashbacks and conversations amongst the ghostly watchers, we learn more about the patients in the asylum and the institution’s relationship to the quirky museum where she lately worked.Slowly the various strings of the story knit together to a poignant and satisfying resolution. We watch as Jane uncovers the truth and is able to re-frame her own past in order to set herself (and the ghosts of the past) free.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful. Uniquely Facinating, Beautifully Written By Barbarino I'd just like to start by saying something that should be obvious; reading tastes are individual, what you might think is fantastic (little zombie children eating people in the season that arrives after fall and departs before spring) I might think is dreadful and vice versa. And honestly, I'm totally okay with that, we don't have to agree. I'm happy for you, that you found a book you enjoyed. But what makes me even happier is when I find a book I enjoy, a book that held my attention, had me thinking about the characters when I was away from them, had me completely oblivious of the editor and the author (except to notice the way she so cleverly put the words together on the page).That's what I found with this book. This book grabbed me from the opening lines and kept me interested until the very last pages. The narration was different and I liked that, it made me think and wonder and try to figure out just what was happening with this story. Is this story narrated by a group of ghosts? Yes! When did they attach themselves to the main character? And why? Where did they come from? Why haven't they moved on? Who are they? I liked all of these questions and I liked piecing together the answers the author gives us as the story unfolds.I loved the realism of the story, the characters, their emotions and relationships felt very authentic, even the ghosts felt authentic. I love the element of preserving the past, that's integral to this story, it resonated with me. I love things that have a history, I love old things that have been passed down through the generations. I feel lucky to have things from both sets of my grandparents. I was fortunate in claiming ownership of a box of old family photos, that no one else wanted, over twenty years ago. I recently did my own genealogy research and discovered how I was related to the people in the photos, where they lived and died and that my great-great-great grandparents and I were married in the same church one hundred years apart. There were many times when I was doing that research, learning about the lives of these relatives that I imagined them in places where we've both been, but also, looking over my shoulder encouraging me to remember them and mark down the details of their lives for future generations as well. So much of that experience is captured here in this book and I know that's part of why I loved it so much.The pacing of the story is slow at the beginning, the story isn't predictable and doesn't get tied up neatly in a bow at the end but the storyline is unique and the writing is beautiful. The real life inspiration for this story is also interesting and the author's note talks about a man named George Steiner and his influence on her work. He said "A remembrancer is a human being who knows that to be a human being is to carry within yourself a responsibility, not only to your own present but to the past from which you have come..."I really enjoyed this novel and would encourage others to read it as well. But only do so if you are willing to have an open mind and to use it while you're reading otherwise you might be disappointed. This isn't a predictable mystery with a nice and tidy ending. I would recommend this for readers who enjoy Susanna Kearsley's fiction and for those who can feel the ghosts of the past looking over their shoulders encouraging them to remember.
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