Tuesday 11 January 2022

BOOK REVIEW: The Covenant - Christopher Kerr


TITLE: The Covenant
AUTHOR: Christopher Kerr
PUBLISHED BY: Book Guild Publishing

This debut novel is a story of love, conflict and corruption spanning half a century and reaches into the depths of human spirit.

Two young people experience a passionate summer of love, then part after making a pact which haunts them for a lifetime until they are drawn back to where it all began.

They both experience impressive life journeys involving corruption and wrestle with the ideals they cultivated during their iconic radical era of "love and peace". Whilst enjoying successfully dazzling careers mixing with the rich and powerful, including some of the most influential people in the world, they both seek to make a difference, but discover there is a price for doing so; fifty years after they first met, an impulsive moment changes everything.

Ideals clash with realism in a time of political and historical disorder; some of the paramount tragedies and scandals to shock the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries interweave with this extraordinary story.

My first impression was that of intrigue as the story invoked recollections of the political past, persuading me to remember events from around the world at the time; the story brought back many memories of the turmoil and disorder of the times portrayed which made for a very interesting read; it made it all so real and I could relate to many of the incidents depicted in the story. I’m sure many readers will want to re-read this book just for the facts contained within it.

I loved the settings: France, The USA, and Liverpool (my home town) - reading about well-known streets, buildings near the waterfront and the mention of some renowned Liverpudlians was an unexpected added bonus for me. I liked the inclusion of famous people which added to the interest and made it all the more realistic.

I found the characters, Jonas, Jenny and Peter well-rounded and fascinating; their experiences reminded me of so many events; the well-written prose was very descriptive, readers will easily imagine and certainly visualise all the events depicted.

I was absorbed from page one and really couldn’t put it down; there were many unexpected twists and turns, the suspense and intrigue gripped me which made it a thoroughly enjoyable read and a real page-turner.

Journeying with the main characters through their lives was exciting, more than interesting and jogged my memory about events from around the world.

It is a fabulous thought-provoking love story entwined with politics, sadness and an abundance of happiness; although it is a work of fiction it reads as fact, very cleverly done.

Reviewer - Anne Pritchard


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