Mourning Ruby

by Helen Dunmore

Mourning Ruby explores identity and maternal ties and is bestselling author Helen Dunmore's eighth novel. Rebecca was abandoned by her mother in a shoebox in the backyard of an Italian restaurant when she was two days old. Her life begins without history, in the dark outdoors. Who is she, where has she come from and what can she become? Thirty years later, married to Adam, she gives birth to Ruby, and to a new life for herself. But when sudden tragedy changed the course of that life for ever, and all the lives that touch hers, Rebecca is out in the world again, searching . . . 'Moments that bring the reader to tears . . . a fascinating - often brilliant - novel' The Times 'Bold and unusual . . . miraculously written, Dunmore's drama of loss and regeneration pieces together shattered lives' Daily Mail 'Emotionally restrained, beautifully observed' Daily Telegraph Helen Dunmore has published eleven novels with Zennor in Darkness , which won the McKitterick Prize; Burning Bright; A Spell of Winter, which won the Orange Prize; Talking to the Dead ; Your Blue-Eyed Boy; With Your Crooked Heart; The Siege, which was shortlisted for the 2001 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award and for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2002; Mourning Ruby; House of Orphan; Counting the Stars and The Betrayal, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2010. She is also a poet, children's novelist and short-story writer.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Grief, Novels, British Literature, Book Club, Adult Fiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

I was born in December 1952, in Yorkshire, the second of four children. My father was the eldest of twelve, and this extended family has no doubt had a strong influence on my life, as have my own children. In a large family you hear a great many stories. You also come to understand very early that stories hold quite different meanings for different listeners, and can be recast from many viewpoints.

Poetry was very important to me from childhood. I began by listening to and learning by heart all kinds of rhymes and hymns and ballads, and then went on to make up my own poems, using the forms I’d heard. Writing these down came a little later.

I studied English at the University of York, and after graduation taught English as a foreign language in Finland.

At around this time I began to write the poems which formed my first poetry collection, The Apple Fall, and to publish these in magazines. I also completed two novels; fortunately neither survives, and it was more than ten years before I wrote another novel.

During this time I published several collections of poems, and wrote some of the short stories which were later collected in Love of Fat Men. I began to travel a great deal within the UK and around the world, for poetry tours and writing residences. This experience of working in many different countries and cultures has been very important to my work. I reviewed poetry for Stand and Poetry Review and later for The Observer, and subsequently reviewed fiction for The Observer, The Times and The Guardian. My critical work includes introductions to the poems of Emily Brontë, the short stories of D H Lawrence and F Scott Fitzgerald, a study of Virginia Woolf’s relationships with women and Introductions to the Folio Society's edition of Anna Karenina and to the new Penguin Classics edition of Tolstoy's My Confession.

During the 1980s and early 1990s I taught poetry and creative writing, tutored residential writing courses for the Arvon Foundation and took part in the Poetry Society's Writer in Schools scheme, as well as giving readings and workshops in schools, hospitals, prisons and every other kind of place where a poem could conceivably be welcome. I also taught at the University of Glamorgan, the University of Bristol's Continuing Education Department and for the Open College of the Arts.

In the late 1980s I began to publish short stories, and these were the beginning of a breakthrough into fiction. What I had learned of prose technique through the short story gave me the impetus to start writing novels. My first novel for children was Going to Egypt, published in 1992, and my first novel for adults was Zennor in Darkness, published in 1993, which won the McKitterick Prize. This was also my first researched novel, set in the First World War and dealing with the period when D H Lawrence and his wife Frieda lived in Zennor in Cornwall, and came under suspicion as German spies.

My third novel, A Spell of Winter, won the inaugural Orange Prize for Fiction in 1996, and since then I have published a number of novels, short story collections and books for children. Full details of all these books are available on this website. The last of The Ingo Quartet, The Crossing of Ingo, was published in paperback in Spring 2009.

My seventh novel, The Siege (2001) was shortlisted both for the Whitbread Novel Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction. This was another researched novel, which grew from a lifelong love of Russian history, culture and literature. It is is set in Leningrad during the first year of the siege of the city by German forces, which lasted for 880 days from the fall of Mga on 30th August 1941. The Siege has been translated into Russian by Tatyana Averchina, and extracts have been broadcast on radio in St Petersburg. House of Orphans was published in 2006, and in 2008 Counting the Stars. Its central characters are the Roman poet Catullus, who lived during the last years of the Republic,

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is both one of the best I’ve read in a long time and quite disappointing. The excellent part has to do with Rebecca and Adam’s loss of their daughter—and the author treats the subject with sensitivity and heart-wrenching realism. The disappointing part is that a considerable portion of the last half of the book is a short story written by a friend of Rebecca’s. I always feel a bit cheated when an author slips a basically unrelated story into a narrative (A.S.Byatt does this as well). Is this the only way to get the piece published? Did the author run out of steam with the main plot? If I were writing an essay for a college English class I could draw strong parallels between the main narrative and the short story and probably justify it’s inclusion—but really—I’d rather not.

[J.C. Greenway · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first part of this book had me so gripped I couldn't sleep, as former abandoned child Rebecca and her husband Adam mourned the loss of their only daughter. But part way through it became a thoroughly weak tale written by Rebecca's friend Joe, from where it descended rapidly into cliche and plot 'twists' heralded from a mile off.

At one point Dunmore so lost interest in telling the rest of Joe's 'plucky prostitute in love with doomed WW1 airman' story she continued it as notes. The best part of the tale is that of Rebecca's boss, a showman-turned-hotelier, but it is treated as a throw-away in order to get back to Joe. By the end I was only continuing to see if the grizzly bears surrounding his writing retreat in Vancouver had got hungry enough to do all disgruntled readers a favour. Best avoided.

[Heather Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a rather frustrating book to me. On the one hand, the writing (in the mechanical sense - sentence and imagery, etc.) is lovely and sometimes breathtaking. On the other hand, the actual story is disappointing. I am not one who requires plot-heavy stories to be satisfied with a book, but I do require something that at least connects in meaningful ways. This one, for me, just didn't.

The phrase "the sum of the whole is greater than its parts" comes to mind here, except in the case of "Mourning Ruby", the opposite is true. The parts are much greater than their sum. The author has several little figments of story, each of which could be incredibly interesting if developed. Unfortunately, they aren't. I suppose that could be the point, but it left me feeling cheated. The overall story, which I took to be the main character Rebecca's progress in her grief, didn't connect with me. That arc was disjointed and too vague to make an impression. It could be that I just didn't care much for Rebecca. Another character, Joe, makes a comment at one point that she cares nothing for herself. I did not find that to be the case. I found she was extremely wrapped up in herself with little regard to the fact that her husband, too, had lost a child. I think this is probably natural with grief, and I could have actually embraced that fact had Rebecca been more developed than she was. This was a problem with nearly every character, and I think that's why the overall arc falls flat with me.

However, there are parts of this book when Helen Dunmore works magic. Some of the way she shows Rebecca's grief are beautiful. And that's why I finished the book, because of those moments. Unfortunately, the story was too disconnected and vague to leave a very lasting impact on me.

[Nicola · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first I really enjoyed this book. Dunmore's writing style is beautiful. However there just seem to be so many storylines packed into quite a short book and I ended up feeling disappointed by the end as none of them seemed to come to any sort of ending. It felt too fragmented for me and I ended up feeling a little confused as the book went from one storyline to another without giving you time to really 'fall in love with' the characters.

[Jan Priddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do not know if I can express how personal this book felt to me. If readers are looking for a novel with a tidy narrative arch, this is not that book.

MOURNING RUBY by Helen Dunmore (2004) does not provide the tidy happy or sad ending. The real world is messy and interwoven and stunningly beautiful. It crushes you and forces you to look at events you wished had never happened, it catches you up in longing and joy and throws you into the cold sea. From the title we know her daughter has died, that this has crushed Rebecca's world. I know her story, I know her need to circle around and around without looking at what happens because she cannot stop seeing it, cannot stop irrationally bargaining for some other turn of fate, that need is always there, blotting out the rest of the world. Finally she tells us: "You can write about memory forever. You can do it to avoid writing about what happened. It's one way out of it. Tell a story, tell another story. Stories falling thick as snow to bury what happened. . . . this is what happened" (91).

It is much more than grief, it is love and passion and the way our lives touch others, the way we pay for our imagined sins and achieve forgiveness. You will have to take my word for it that the way it ends makes me smile and feel grateful both for this book and for my own life.

[Chanpheng · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book describes the agony of a parent losing a child, of grief and not letting go. In Western cultures, we'd grieve and then tell another person "to get on with it" if the grieving is prolonged. An Asian person would be able to understand how the dead continued to live on.

The first section of the book was warm and sorrowful. Dunmore's style is fluid and evocative - her characters are real people. However, the sections of the book in which Joe's writing is included are weak. I kinda understand why she included them - how art can transform experience; however, the writing is not strong and the section where she includes Joe's notes on character. I see enough of my notes that I don't want to read someone else's.

So the wonderful sections on Rebecca, Adam, Ruby and Rebecca's relationship with Joe are wonderful; the rest can be skipped.

I'm looking forward to getting a hold of Dunmore's book of short stories - "Ice Cream."

[Helen Maltby · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really enjoy this book. The first section was the better bit, although as the mother of children around Ruby's age I found it very hard to read, and I did cry quite a bit. But then it went into Joe's story that he was writing and it lost its way. I'm sure there was supposed to be a connection but to be honest I got to the stage where I just wanted to get it read and move on, so I didn't spend to long trying to make those connections.

It felt like a muddled book with too many ideas.

[Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story of a couple mourning the loss of their daughter has been done many times and is usually predictable. This story was predictable to a point...

Rebecca, mother of 4 year old Ruby, was left in a shoebox as a newborn outside an Italian restaurant. Not much of Rebecca's story is told, but it is assumed that while not an idyllic childhood, it was not horrible either. While little is revealed of Rebecca's past, the story of how she was found and later adopted weighs on Rebecca's mind. She has no past of her own and therefore, nothing to pass onto Ruby.

Rebecca and husband Alex are in love with each other and they both love their precious daughter, but a terrible accident destroys their lives when Ruby dies. Both grieve, but neither one approves of the way the other is grieving and at some point, the two separate. There is no drama, no slow-building story that leads to the event. It is just at some point in reading that I understood the couple had split up.

And that, was part of the problem for me. So much of the story is left out and it is up to the reader to keep up. Even then, much of the story is blurry. It is difficult to tell what is real and what is imagined. It is difficult to tell what is a story of the past or the present or if is just a dream. To confuse things even more, a friend of Rebecca's begins to write a novel that takes place during World War II. It is meant to enlighten Rebecca and to help her move forward. It did not enlighten me. The story was well-written, but I saw no connection to Rebecca and her situation.

It seemed to me that Dunsmore started one story, then got side-tracked with the possibility of writing another and for some reason decided to put the two together. I think she has a beautiful way with words that can stir the emotions. The character of Mr. Damiano, Rebecca's employer, was such an example of that ability. He came to life and his story became more interesting than Rebecca's own. Maybe that would have made another good stand alone novel.

All in all, it seemed that Dunsmore just couldn't channel the obvious talent she has. If she had filled in the blanks for Rebecca's story, I would have been more enthusiastic. If she had chosen instead to write the World War II story, I may have enjoyed that one as well. A complete story about Mr. Damiano would have been interesting. Somehow, though, the three threads in this one book just did not work for me.

[Debbie Robson · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the back cover of Mourning Ruby it says: “Like a Russian doll, this novel opens to reveal a brilliant richness of stories locked within.” Unfortunately the stories simply don’t hang together. Although I did believe in Rebecca’s grief, I did not believe in Mr Damiano’s stories. I also found that I was relating more to Joe and Rebecca’s friendship more than the love affair between Rebecca and Adam. I also found that ultimately Joe’s manuscript undermined the final scenes of the novel.

[Linda Lipko]

How does this happen? How can an author who writes such stellar books such as The Seige write a dud like Mourning Ruby.

One hundred pages into it and I quit, counted my loss and moved along. It was good enough to keep hoping that it would get better. Alas, I was tricked.

Checking other reviews, I find the same thoughts as mine, ie too many plots, too many images that float all over kingdom come, too much rambling and way too much convolution.

A tragic loss of a five year old child is a substantial plot, yet Dunmore flies all over the place with snipets of characters and their thoughts. If the thoughts don't add to the story, who cares?

I hate it when I'm left feeling stupid because I didn't comprehend what the heck she was trying to say.

I have no idea what Dunmore was hoping to accomplish. If she was trying to be highly intellectual or highly artistic, she failed.

NOT recommended.

[Anita Nother Book · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mourning Ruby is more or less about a mother who is grieving the tragic loss of her five-year-old daughter. But the "more or less" part cannot be overlooked. If it weren't for the title and the ominous cover picture featuring a little girl skipping in the leaves in a red dress, the reader would have no idea what this book is about for quite some time. It begins with a prologue that is a dream sequence, told in the first person, of the narrator--Ruby's mother Rebecca--and Ruby walking along a road. I thought that a novel should never open with a dream; it's a cheap technique, too easily and often used. And unfortunately the book continues that way, although a lot of the techniques are more original. After the prologue, Rebecca describes what happened to her when she herself was a baby, which was that her mother left her in a shoebox outside an Italian restaurant. She was then adopted by parents who seem not to care for her much, and the feelings are mutual. She tells her own story in such a removed and distant way that it is hard to relate to her. Plus, the tone of the writing is confusing and the plot starts jumping all over the place.

Soon we learn that Rebecca lived with a guy who was in love with her, but those feelings weren't mutual. His name is Joe and he writes historical non-fiction. He's in the middle of writing a book about Stalin's second wife, and this story takes up a good chunk of the first part of the book. That story could be rather interesting, but Joe tells it to Rebecca in a series of long drawn-out conversations, in which he makes clear that she is not interested in what he is talking about. So why should the reader be? I never really figured that out, although I did enjoy reading about collectivist Russia.

We also learn that Rebecca has a husband named Adam, but the relationship between them doesn't seem very convincing. He is a doctor who saves newborn babies, ironically. Some things seem like easy plot devices which aren't very realistic-- such as Rebecca working part-time in a bar while her husband is doctoring.

Another central sub-plot in Mourning Ruby is the story of Rebecca and her boss, Mr. Damiano, for whom she goes to work after Ruby's death. To me he was the most interesting character and his story was the most captivating, albeit even more unrealistic than the relationship between Rebecca and Adam. His family performed in circuses in Madrid, and his little sister suffered a tragedy almost as devastating as Ruby's death. Mr. Damiano likes to re-create "dream worlds"--obviously a theme underlying the novel--and bring pleasure to people as his business. He owns a chain of hotels, all named after minor to rather obsure poets: Sidney, Lampedusa, Villon, Langland, Sonescu, Cavafy, Sexton, and Bishop. Poetry and written language play a central part in this novel. In fact, an obvious theme is a writer writing about writing, which I found at times to be both interesting and annoying.

For instance, each chapter--and many of them are very short--starts out with a rather strange title and a snippet of a poem, excerpt from a book, or folk song. I found these snippets to be distracting because I wanted to know where they came from and how they related to the book and what the rest of the snippet was all about. Like much about the book, this information is never revealed to the reader, except at the very end, when Dunmore includes a list of "sources," which include her own poetry. Also in line with the literary theme, Joe tells Rebecca near the beginning of the book that the Russian poet Mandelstam once wrote about baby airplanes as a metapher for writing poetry: one airplane in full flight gives birth to another airplane, which then flies off and gives birth to another airplane. Dunmore weaves this theme into the novel, as a way to show how one story gives life to another, and all stories are connected. I suppose that Rebecca is trying to find her own life story, but the rather interesting plot line about her birth and her upbringing as an adopted child is abandoned rather early on. It's hard to care about a book when each story drops off after it gives birth to the next one. Ruby's death is the only main theme that continues throughout the book, but it's hard to connect to because so many other stories are swarming around it.

Most frustrating of all, for me, wasn't the fact that so many stories were told, but rather it was the way they were told. Much of the prose during Rebecca's narration is beautiful (the jacket cover states that Dunmore is a poet and short story writer, so I might like to check her out in these contexts, in which the language and style might work better for me than it did in a novel). The flowery language, however, seemed to detract from the plot for me and made it hard for me to related to Rebecca as a real character. And some of the stories that had the potential to be the most exciting were told in the dullest manners possible. Mr. Damiano's fascinating life story is told--much like the history of Stalin that Joe is writing--in long strings of conversation, which to me took a lot away from the potential captivating action. I was unsure why Dunmore chose to do this, even though I "got" that she had this over-riding theme of writing about writing, and writing about stories within stories.

Mid-way through Mourning Ruby, the point of view changes, and we are seeing Joe, told from the omniscient perspective, without Rebecca there, and also Adam in the same way. To me this was disappointing and destroyed any integrity the novel was supposed to have. It was another easy way out. The last part of the book is part of a novel that Joe sends to Rebecca, ostensibly to help her figure out her own story. I found part of this plot interesting, as it was about a prostitute named Florence who lived in France during the First World War. The Madame of the house was the only strong female character in the book (I thought it was annoying how Rebecca learned everything about herself through the three main male characters), although Florence, by the end portion of Joe's unfinished work of fiction, was starting to develop into a strong character as well. Joe tells Rebecca that he hasn't finished the book and so he encloses character and plot notes, which we the poor readers are forced to suffer through, right when we were into the story of Florence, and quite awhile after we had totally lost track of the story of Rebecca and Ruby.

Overall, Mourning Ruby was one of the most discombobulated novels I have ever read. At first it left me feeling disoriented, and then, once I got my bearings, it usually left me feeling disappointed. At times the language was captivating, and at other times the plot was too. These times were nearly canceled out, however, by the parts that seemed to be told in a hurry of rushed dialogue. The concept is certainly ambitious and I like some of the ideas behind the novel, but I think they were executed rather poorly, with style valued much more than substance. I did enjoy the writing theme, but it was much too much: definitely overkill. I enjoyed reading about the different places and time periods. Most of the parts featuring Rebecca--all of which are contemporary--are set in Cornwall, and some in London (Dunmore is a British writer). I also enjoyed reading about historical France and historical and modern-day Russia (where Joe briefly resides and where Rebecca and Adam go to visit him in a rather twisted love-triangle). So I can't say I regret reading this unique book, but it certainly wasn't one of my favorites. I give it two and a half out of five stars.

For more book reviews and other posts of interest to readers and writers, please visit my blog More book reviews at Voracia: Goddess of Words

[Tina Milledge · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF at 50%. I enjoyed it to begin with but lost interest. I would try one of this author’s books again, this one just felt a bit jumpy with the chapters of life before and with Adam. Felt like it didn’t really need the Mr D storyline, maybe it would’ve come together if I’d persevered but I have too many other books I am dying to read so decided to leave this one.

[Tim Atkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feels a betrayal giving anything by Helen Dunmore anything less than five stars, and this book still has all the trademark poetry of her work. What it lacks (for me) is any kind of unity. Rather than a novel, it reads like a collection of three rather long short stories or perhaps, short novellas with what I can’t help thinking is a rather artificial connection (Joe, historian-turned-novelist, who shares his work-in-progress with the main protagonist). That said, until the half-way point I was seduced as I always am by Dunmore’s beautifully-wrought prose. But then Joe took over. And I lost the plot.

[P.D.R. Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always enjoy Helen Dunmore's writing and this novel is another to add to the list of satisfactory reads.

Ruby is a character to enjoy. Abandoned as a baby, with no ties to her parents, Rebecca makes her own family life with Joe, a historian and good friend; her husband Adam, Joe's friend; and Ruby, her beloved daughter. All is well until..... Well read the book and find out.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Abandoned in a shoe box outside an Italian restaurant, Rebecca grows up to be an uncertain adult, aware of the histories others carry around with them and conscious of the gap in her own life story. She lives for some years in a Platonic relationship with Joe, a popular historian researching Stalin's life, before she meets and marries Adam, a neonatologist, with whom she has Ruby, a child on whom she showers all the love she lacked in her own childhood. But when Ruby is killed in a car accident Rebecca's hopes and dreams come crashing to the ground. Her relationship with Adam crumbles and she starts a new life working for Mr Damiano, a former circus performer who runs a chain of restaurants.

It's a story that already seems to be going in several directions at once yet at this point Helen Dunmore decides to import into the narrative the text of a novel being written by Joe about a relationship between a First World War pilot called Will and a prostitute called Florence. It's hard to see why. Will and Florence's story has nothing but a tenuous thematic connection with the main narrative and it is not even properly realised, much of it being only in note form. As a result the structure of the book entirely disintegrates.

As always with Helen Dunmore, the writing is lyrical and the observation of human behaviour acute. Here she is describing the effect of Ruby's death on Rebecca's life with Adam:

'Our house was full of grief, packed solid with this thing that kept changing shape and seizing us in new ways. It had moved in like a crowd of strangers: animal, vegetable, mineral. At one moment it was a picture book, the next it became a scuffed place under the swing. It sat on Adam's desk, it would not let us sit at the kitchen table, it pounced as next door's cat squirmed in the autumn sun. It trod everywhere. In the shower water hit me like rods of iron and I gasped under the weight.'

But it's a beautifully written shambles. A novel needs more shape and organisation than this. At the end I felt like I had been reading a narrative stitched together from the left over bits of other novels

[Paola Fornari · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed reading this, and as always Helen Dunmore had me in tears, ploughing through the book late at night. But there are oh so many potentially brilliant separate stories in it - the protagonist Rebecca’s own tragic start in life, her bereavement, her realationship with her flatmate Joe, her realationship with her husband, Joe’s passion for Russian history and his writings, his interest in the poet Mandelstam, the plot of the novel Joe is writing, the intriguing story of Rebecca’s boss Mr Damiano - and all these elements are linked in a rather laborious and contrived way. I wish she had simply settled with the idea of completing five separate novels...each would have been much more satisfying that this hotch-potch.

[Alyson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being a definite fan of Helen Dunmore I found this book rather frustrating. The early part was gripping with the story of the narrator's birth and then moving into her relationship with Joe and then Adam. It combines Dunmore's lovely lyrical text and great descriptions and real involvement with the main character. However, I'm not sure what quite went wrong towards the end when Dunmore has Joe narrate his own story, which isn't even finished and is left dangling with several versions of the ending. The return then to Rebecca's story, which is inadequately finished too, left rather a hole.
I felt there was rather too many strands running through this with some lovely vignettes, any of which could have been developed further, just not all at the same time.

[H.A. Leuschel · Rating 3 out of 5]

If there is one tragic event that would cause a person to lose their mind I would definitely say that the loss of one's child is very high up the list. This book is tender and sad and the reason I only gave it three stars is that I felt despite the parallel story of friendship between Ruby's mother and another man, it didn't quite fit. On their own, both stories could possibly have been developed into two different novels. The writing is beautiful though and the imagery created by the author captivating!

[Jaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the first I've read of Helen Dunmore. Mourning Ruby is a story of loss, of a parent's journey through grief~it is also the story of love. Dunmore's prose is beautiful, the stories are moving and the characters believable. Some may not like the story within a story within a story. I didn't find that it was confusing or that it hurt the main plot but enhanced it. I'd recommend it to friends.

[Ursula Kibido · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book had me gripped in the beginning. The story within a story at the end had me really confused as I thought there'd be a parallel with Rebecca's story. There was none and I don't understand why it was there? Book had great potential but was disappointing in the end. Would not recommend 😞

[Dottie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another Dunmore. Another good read. I happen to fall into the camp of readers who love Dunmore.

[Melinda J Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was beautifully written. Although it has been criticized for seeming to drop one storyline and pick up another midway, I feel differently. The second part, Joe’s book, is giving Rebecca an alternate life. One where her mother did what was necessary to keep her child. In Joe’s story, Claire is Rebecca. She is not, as an infant, left outside a restaurant in a shoebox. In Joe’s story she has a history and ancestors. She will grow up knowing her mother and feeling loved. Joe loved Rebecca so much he wanted her to have a different story. He urged her to get rid of the shoebox. Not just throw it away, but to burn it, completely destroy it. I loved that she and Adam were reunited and visited the grave of their sweet daughter Ruby.

I was moved by what Mr. Damiano said to Rebecca when speaking about her experience with grief. “I look at your face Rebecca, and I see that the worst thing that can happen to you has happened to you. It’s there, look, anyone can see it. It has made a mark on you and that mark will never come off. You take it with you wherever you go. What you are now is the woman that Ruby’s death has made. And with that - we’ll, that is enough.” (170). My best friend lost her child, these words really spoke to me, I will share them with her.

There are so many tender passages throughout this book, they are sprinkled here and there for the reader to discover and savor.

Here’s one, not so tender but equally enjoyable. Solange describing Madame Blanche, “But what’s she? I should like to know? Putting white gloves on her hands while her feet are wading in pig shit, that’s her”. (212) This reminded me of some unkind individuals with whom I have been acquainted.

[Catrinamaria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic Helen Dunmore. Beautifully written. Lyrical prose. She is able not only to paint a picture but also to create atmosphere and convey the most personal of emotions within the characters she creates. Such was the intensity of dread created in this novel I had to pause for two days before reading the main distressing episode. Even now as I recall the scene and its impact my stomach churns. Dunmore stretches the novel both in time and place very cleverly. She forces you to think and doesn't supply all the answers. The reader has to work hard too. I haven't given it 5 stars because the sequence of the novel within the novel just didn't work for me. It was distracting and I felt it failed to make the impact the author had hoped. But overall...a great read.

[Jean St.Amand · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really have no idea what the hell I just read. I skimmed a lot of it because I was bored silly by just about everything to do with Joe. Rebecca being left in a shoe box shortly after her birth didn't seem to have anything to do with the rest of the story. Mourning Ruby seemed to be such a small part that it didn't even make sense to call the book Mourning Ruby. The war story part... that was just another of Joe's stories, right? The whole thing was kind of a mess. Losing Ruby and coping with her loss would have been a story. Florence would have been a story. I'm just confused.
The bit I sort of liked was about Joe living on Vancouver Island because that is where I have lived my whole life.
Mr. Damiano had a story with potential too.

[Helen Felgate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth a read if only for the quality of Dunmore's writing and as a powerful exploration of grief at the loss of a child, ultimately I found this to to be less satisfying than other works I have read by the author. It goes off at a bit of a tangent about half way through the novel with separate stories introduced eg. the retelling of the novel being written by Joe and also the back story of Rebecca's ex boss. All interesting in themselves but leaving me with the feeling that none of the storylines had been fully explored or satisfactorily resolved. That said, even a lesser novel by Dunmore is always well worth a read.

[Pippa Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although there were some excellent storylines in this book, I found it jumped around from one to the other so much that it lost its flow. The author’s descriptions of the relationships between people, and of loss and of grief, were superlative, but didn’t make up for the breaks in the narrative. Overall, I was disappointed in this book, having read others by Helen Dunmore that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.

[Jan Laney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intriguing and enigmatic. Stories beget stories within stories. One of the stories is reminiscent of her earlier novel, The Greatcoat.
This is a difficult subject matter told with a restraint that is heartbreaking. H.D arrives at her conclusion through the medium of storytelling.
The language has flashes of brilliance where it becomes pure poetry.

[Windi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mourning Ruby …. Confused me. This is the 4th book by this author I have finished in 2 months. Of the 4 this was my least favorite. There seemed to be two completely different stories …. Unrelated ….. neither of which were developed to their fullest, and both of which had the makings of a great story on its own.
Baffled at the approach and left to wonder how each story resolves.

[mrs jane fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mysterious story about mourning and death

This book doesn't work for me it is good up to Rubys death and then it seems to lose momentum and become muddled and strange. Not at all like her other books which are believable and well written.
The story within a story is not believable for me I didn't enjoy it. Perhaps I'm missing something but no way of finding out.

[Rosemary Noble · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is two books. Why oh why did the author suddenly decide to write another unrelated story in the middle? I think the second story had the potential to be its own novel, so why did her editor allow this? All it did was frustrate and disappoint the reader.