Anne's life is rushing to an unexpected and untimely end. But her diagnosis of terminal cancer isn't just a shock for her and for her daughter Sigrid and granddaughter Mia it shines a spotlight onto their fractured and uncomfortable relationships.
On a spur-of-the moment trip to France the three generations of women reveal harboured secrets, long-held frustrations and suppressed desires, and learn humbling and heart-warming lessons about how life should be lived when death is so close.
With all of Helga Flatland's trademark humour, razor-sharp wit and deep empathy, One Last Time examines the great dramas that can be found in ordinary lives, asks the questions that matter to us all and ultimately celebrates the resilience of the human spirit, in an exquisite, enchantingly beautiful novel that urges us to treasure and rethink ... everything.
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I bring the blade of the axe down on her neck. 1
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(@Orendabooks, 24 June 2021, 276 pages, ebook, #ARC from the publisher and voluntarily reviewed, #BlogTour 1 June 2021)
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This is a new author for me. I thought One Last Time was a remarkable book, incredibly sad at times but gripping and full of hope as well, a nice blend of light and dark. I plan to read more of her books. I'm in for a treat if One Last Time is anything to go by. The premise for the book isn't exactly original, familiar territory that's featured in books many times over, terminal illness that brings uneasy family relationships into focus. However, what makes One Last Time so unique is how great a job the author does of brining her complex characters and their relationship to life. I really connected with everything about the book.
