Not for me

I didn't enjoy this, almost bathing in melancholy and too many adjectives for too many minor things. Never seem to get anywhere, I gave up at Ch4.
Long slow descriptions of weariness.

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4 people found this helpful

Beautiful and Delicate

Utterly beautiful. Fantasticly written and very moving. Delicate and raw in a relatable way.

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Authors voice adds resonance to the writing.

Chapter five was when this book finally clicked for me. Beautifully sad and heartbreaking moments of reflection. The writer style is one of repeating phrases (‘I think about…’) and recurring nature themes (various birds, insects, wildlife, as well as wind, river, sea, light and shadow)

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Moving, beautiful, sad, and thought provoking

I keep putting off writing a review of this because to do it justice would be a thousand word essay! So here is a jumble of my thoughts …

I love this genre — part memoir, part philosophy, part nature writing, part travel writing, part history, part … I first encountered books like this when I read The Rings of Saturn. I find the fact that it is impossible to place in a specific genre very enticing.

The contrast between Thin Places and Milkman was stark. The styles (both amazing authors and wordsmiths) were so so different, and yet each teaches us so much about what it was like to live through the troubles. Anna Burns uses sparse monotonous language to edge us into a strange emotional dislocation, while Kerri Ní Dochartaigh's language is rich indeed.

I want to call Kerri Ní Dochartaigh's writing poetic, but it is not, because I do not get a sense of meter. But it is beautiful, it almost reads like s string of pearls, where each pearl is an aphorism.

I listened to the audible version; Kerri Ní Dochartaigh's narration is wonderful. She gives space to the words and lets silence sit between each phrase. I read the Kindle version too, because I found there were so many passages I wanted to highlight and come back to.

Some reviews criticise the repetative nature of the book. It *is* very repetative, but that felt like a deliberate choice and made the book feel more like a piece of music. In Bach's Goldberg Variations we first hear a tune, and then he picks out the base line from the tune and moves that bass line, now as a tune in its own right, through a long series of variations, before returning to the opening tune. Kerri Ní Dochartaigh does the same, and trauma is the underlying bass line that gets reworked onto each variation.

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1 person found this helpful

Full of depth and significance

I have listened to a couple of Irish history books which detail the harrowing stories of the famine, emigration and Island’s identity struggles. However, there was little in those books about how the experiences impacted those who lived through them. Maybe those stories were lost to time.

This book is a rare, first-hand account of how the turbulence of the troubles has shaped the life of a real person and those around her. It’s not always an easy listen but it’s value will be experienced by those who take the time to open up and truly listen. It’s particularly poignant being read by the author, who is a compelling storyteller and narrator.
I personally enjoyed listening to this at 1.2 speed as the narration still flows very well.

This book is valuable to those who are processing their own loss and it should also appeal to those who feel a deep connection to nature. From a historical perspective, the significance of the book will undoubtedly grow as it ages.

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1 person found this helpful

Stunning writing

Simply beautiful nature writing mingles with a harrowing story of the Troubles. Fascinating, heartbreaking, uplifting and extremely well-written, it's also a cautionary tale we would all do well to listen to.
Definitely recommend!

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1 person found this helpful

beautiful and haunting

I loved this book - as someone else who grew up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and who left, feeling I had no choice, I could really identify with what Kerri was saying. Northern Ireland is gifted with some beautiful scenery and thin places and I'm sure that's why we are always drawn back, to connect with those places physically and in our souls. Despite the violence. Thank you Kerri for helping me process some of my own childhood and decisions.

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Different

I loved this book for the way it has made me see the world differently. the narration was beautiful and the writing very poetic. Kerry's struggle with life is at times painful to listen to but also inspiring and left me feeling I would like to keep this friend and know how she fares in the future.

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2 people found this helpful

mental health and love of nature

Kerri ní Dochertaigh weaves beautiful tales of her homeland, its nature and spirituality with her journey to understanding her metal health. I loved the descriptions of Ireland, Edinburgh and Bristol. The narration was a bit slow for my taste, but this was easily remedied by increasing my audio speed to 1.3X. I'll revisit this book again in a few years.

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1 person found this helpful

Poetically beautiful

Raw and beautiful memoir sharing the layers of trauma peeling back, making room for healing and growing.

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