They are separating, she and her husband, after two decades together.
This fact is new.
Only really a fact for a few weeks or so. Before that it was a possibility - one potential outcome among many. But now it appears to be, unequivocally, the case.
There are many ways of telling the tale ...
There are many different sides to every story ...
The White Rock stands, ancient and sacred, off the Pacific coast of Mexico. Four people, across four centuries, each navigating ruptures to the world they know, are irresistibly drawn to it.
A British writer travels in 2020 with her husband and young daughter to give thanks for the birth of their child. She looks to the White Rock for answers, even as her faith in her marriage, and the future itself, is unravelling.
An American rock star in 1969 is in the final act of his self-destruction. On the run from the law, from his rabid fans and an America burning with the fever of the Vietnam War, he washes up at the edge of Mexico, hoping to lose, or maybe find himself.
A Yoeme girl is torn from her homeland at the turn of the twentieth century and taken by force to the coast. As her future is recast in the name of progress and power, she turns to the stories of her people, to resist, and to survive.
And in 1775 a young Spanish naval officer, preparing to set sail from the White Rock to continue the conquest of the Pacific coast, appears to lose his grip on reality, with far-reaching and fatal consequences.
And as they each find themselves at the end of the story they have lived by, their tales echo, breathtakingly, through time . . .
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(@PenguinUKBooks, 23 November 202, e-book, 304 pages, borrowed from @GlasgowLib via @BorrowBox)
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I enjoyed The White Rock a lot. I liked the fact the monolith of the title serves as the central point for four different people with four different stories across different timelines. This structure reminds me a lot of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Each character has a separate chapter, and we learn about them, their lives and their connection to the strange rock. The rock the only thing that connects them across space and time. There's a small chapter which goes into some detail about the history of the rock then we return to the characters and read the end of their stories. I enjoyed this a lot. This is a powerful, searing book.
