Absolutely and Forever, by Rose Tremain

Young love turns into a healthy obsession in Rose Tremain's autobiographical novel.

It's 1950s England, and fifteen-year-old Marianne Clifford has fallen in love with the beautiful Simon Hurst, a few years older than her. Their love blooms like a fresh spring flower, young and vulnerable to precarious conditions. When Simon flunks his exams, his parents send him to Paris. The two young lovers stay in contact, each letter from Simon fuelling an impossible hope that the two will spend their lives together. Then comes the fatal blow: Simon is getting married to a woman he met in Paris.

Marianne tries to carry on, but is drowning in an ocean of grief. She marries, but the union is ultimately unsatisfying. Her parents, the brash Colonel and his emotionally absent wife, are no help. When Simon makes a surprise return to England, Marianne knows in her heart she will see him again. But what will be the outcome?

Award winning English novelist Rose Tremain has written an authentic story of young heartbreak and its aftermath. Despite the painful subject, the novel is largely entertaining, with comic portraits of the blunt Colonel and Marianne's tell-it-like-it-is Scottish friend Petronella. A perfectly realised, cathartic story about how early love has the power to haunt us through life.  

Absolutely and Forever, by Rose Tremain. Published by Chatto & Windus. $39.99

DEC23