Intriguing, thought-provoking, with a good twist.

Any additional comments?

I chose this book because it has won prizes and has been praised by many critics and book bloggers I respect. It is not the kind of novel that I would normally pick up in a library or bookshop but I'm very glad that I gave it a go.

The story concerns Peggy who is taken from her home in London, under mysterious circumstances, to live in a cabin the woods ( in Germany? ) by her Survivalist father. She is eight years old at the time of her 'abduction'. One night, while her concert pianist mother is away on a concert tour, she overhears snatches of a quarrel between her father and his long-term friend and fellow survivalist Oliver. Their departure from the family home follows almost immediately after this. When Peggy escapes from the cabin and her father and is reunited with her mother, she is seventeen and discovers that she has an eight-year-old brother whom she has never known.

The bulk of the tale tells of the endless numbered days in the cabin with her father, surviving in the natural world with no modern conveniences and believing a story , told by her father, of a natural catastrophe which has left only the two of them alive. The relationship between the two of them undergoes many stresses and changes and when Peggy discovers the possibility of another person living nearby she begins to challenge the version of life her father has constructed for her. Puberty begins to rear its head too and Peggy is further confused. A descent into mental illness (for one or both of them)seems inevitable and a crisis arises between father and daughter, leading to tragedy and a dramatic final denouement.The story starts quite slowly but builds to a very dramatic end, with a twist which left me open-mouthed. I had thought I had worked out where the story was going but there was a sting in the tale that I did not see coming.

The narrative reads like a modern fairy tale in some respects and the narrator did well to keep me hooked to a storyline which for some periods was a bit light on plot. But overall, I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good yarn and an unexpected ending.

29 people found this helpful

The rest of the world has gone.

Children are the first victims, when their parents go to war and the abuse is always inflicted with love and merciless brutality. This book depicts a particularly cruel and savage war, where a child is taken hostage into the apocalyptic fantasies of her father, and is made to disappear into the wild, into her imagination and her deepest survival instincts.
We meet Peggy, aged 17, in London with her mother, and a younger brother she never knew, till her return from the forest; where her father kept her for nine years. She remembers and tells the story from her point of view, she is an innocent, imaginative little girl, that loves her mama and her papa like all children, and wants to believe in their love. She tells us of her survival in a forest where her father has made her believe is the last place on earth and they are the only survivors.
Beautifully written, well described reality of living outside of society, with minimum resources and no other human contact. We see the awakening of a child into autonomy under the most twisted of circumstances, breaking free into her world and the world.

42 people found this helpful

Great

I don't think this is the type of novel I would usually go for so was surprised how much I enjoyed it. A sad story but interesting and unique and found I was never bored with it at any time.

6 people found this helpful

Eerie

If you could sum up Our Endless Numbered Days in three words, what would they be?

Resourceful, crafty, absorbing.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Peggy/Punzel, because we see everything through her eyes, and though there are clues which make it somewhat easy to guess the awful between-the-lines truths she's not directly telling us, still we want to hear it from her side, and will her to fight on. Because she is an infant for most of the story, you forgive her naivety - but can't help wanting to slip into the pages and tell her to run away!!

What three words best describe Eilidh L. Beaton’s voice?

Soft, feminine, commanding.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

This Be the Verse!

Any additional comments?

Reminded me a lot of the Life of Pi, as the protagonist goes through a remarkable and unbelievable experience, one with very little chance of surviving, but does survive the most harrowing of dangers, with only their wits and imagination to guide them. The first person perspective makes for a deeply absorbing read (along with the past/present disjointed timeline, feeding you clue-crumbs to make you even hungrier for the big answers), and the reader can't help but imagine how they would cope in Peggy's place. Despite the grim subject matter, having a sympathetic central character gives the book a strong emotional core, and it's worth sticking with (but I agree that it perhaps ends too abruptly...).

11 people found this helpful

Excellent read

Absorbing and beautifully written.
Simple but thought provoking tale with just enough clues to provide answers if you concentrate on the smaller details.
Great narration.

11 people found this helpful

An extraordinary and gripping listen

This book kept me wondering until the very end: why did they leave the civilised world and go to the forest? What makes a man take his daughter out of her young life to live far away from any human being in the middle of nowhere? And how can a young girl like Peggy cope with a situation like this? And at the very end of the book when the whole secret was revealed I was even more taken aback...
I must say that this is one of the best books I've ever listened to. It's gripping, it's unexpected, it's unputdownable. Excellent work and highly recommended!

19 people found this helpful

Great!

Let's say ... The Revenant meets Room meets Girl on The Train... a gripping listen, very well narrated.

13 people found this helpful

Extraordinarily gripping unfolding tale of deception & survival

I knocked off one star for the slightly off-putting male voices adopted by the reader, otherwise excellently told. The outcome brilliant, half suspected but only towards the end and even then.. a shock. Descriptions through the eyes of a growing learning struggling child: of nature both beautiful and terrifying and encounters tough and tender..

8 people found this helpful

Original

Fascinating idea. Hauntingly possible.
Beautifully narrated. Recommended to the romantic in us. Seen through the eyes of a sweet natured young girl innocently believing in the reality of her fathers vision.

8 people found this helpful

Kept me gripped by the unfolding story throughout.

It was a slow start but gradually unfolded into a gripping tale of a child's life dominated by her survivalist Father's obsession, and self centred revenge against her mother. Although I could tell the awful truth before the reveal, I felt that it was handled with sensitivity and a skill in story telling that lacked gratuitous sensationalism. It was also full of brilliant details of the struggle to survive off grid. I now feel I don't know what to listen to that can follow that!

12 people found this helpful