It’s the first Saturday of the month which means it’s time for another Six Degrees of Separation, hosted by Kate of Books are my Favourite and Best. The idea is that Kate chooses a book to use as a starting point and then we have to link it to six other books of our choice to form a chain. A book doesn’t have to be connected to all of the others on the list – only to the one next to it in the chain.
This month we’re starting with After Story by Larissa Behrendt. As usual, I haven’t read it, but here’s what it’s about:
When Indigenous lawyer Jasmine decides to take her mother, Della, on a tour of England’s most revered literary sites, Jasmine hopes it will bring them closer together and help them reconcile the past. Twenty-five years earlier the disappearance of Jasmine’s older sister devastated their tight-knit community. This tragedy returns to haunt Jasmine and Della when another child mysteriously goes missing on Hampstead Heath. As Jasmine immerses herself in the world of her literary idols – including Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters and Virginia Woolf – Della is inspired to rediscover the wisdom of her own culture and storytelling. But sometimes the stories that are not told can become too great to bear. Ambitious and engrossing, After Story celebrates the extraordinary power of words and the quiet spaces between. We can be ready to listen, but are we ready to hear?
I was drawn to the line ‘to rediscover the wisdom of her own culture and storytelling’, which reminded me of The Story Keeper by Anna Mazzola (1) in which a young woman applies for a job as assistant to a folklorist and travels to the Isle of Skye to collect folk tales from the local people. I enjoyed this book, with its wonderfully atmospheric setting.
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (2) is also set on the Isle of Skye, where the Ramsay family have a summer home. The novel begins with six-year-old James Ramsay being promised a trip to the lighthouse the next day if the weather is fine – but the weather is not fine and James won’t get to visit the lighthouse until ten years later. Although this is one of her best known books, it wasn’t really for me and I’ve enjoyed others by Woolf much more.
Another book featuring a lighthouse is The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman (3). Tom Sherbourne is a lighthouse keeper on the island of Janus Rock, off the coast of Australia. When a boat is washed up on the shore with a baby girl inside, Tom and his wife decide to keep her and raise her as their own child. This is a beautiful, thought-provoking novel which perfectly captures the isolation endured by lighthouse keepers and their families, as well as the guilt experienced after making an impulsive decision that you know was wrong.
The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally (4) is also set, at least partly, in Australia. It tells the story of two sisters who join the Australian Army Nursing Service during the First World War and serve on a hospital ship in the Dardanelles and on the Western Front. It’s a fascinating novel but was spoiled for me by the unconventional punctuation and the distance I felt from the two main characters.
Another book about nursing during the Great War is Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain (5). This is the only non-fiction book in my chain and is Brittain’s memoir covering the years 1900-1925 and describing her experiences as a VAD nurse during the First World War. I highly recommend reading this book if you haven’t already, but be warned that it’s completely heartbreaking in places!
My final book has a shared word in the title. Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments (6) is a sequel to her earlier novel, The Handmaid’s Tale and is again set in Gilead, a dystopian community ruled by a patriarchal regime. The novel is made up of the ‘testaments’ of three characters, giving us three different perspectives of life in Gilead. I didn’t like it as much as the first book, but still found it interesting.
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And that’s my chain for this month. My links have included: Collecting stories, the Isle of Skye, lighthouses, Australia in WWI, wartime nursing and the word ‘testament’. In October, we’ll be starting with Colm Tóibín’s Long Island.
She Reads Novels 
I like the sound of “The Story Keeper” so thanks for that! Testament of Youth is one of the few non-fiction books I really loved, but I was less enamored by her sequel, Testament of Friendship. I have Atwood’s Testaments on my shelf but I’ve yet to get around to reading it… I should put it into my TBR jar!
I loved Testament of Youth too, but I’ve never read Testament of Friendship. Sorry to hear it’s not as good.
Oh, it is VERY good, but Youth is better.
Your themes are all subjects which draw me in, Helen. Skye, lighthouses, WW1… The Story Keeper sounds lovely.
Yes, I really enjoyed The Story Keeper. Skye is a lovely setting.
A great chain! I was thinking about The Light Between Oceans last week while visiting an isolated lighthouse and telling my niece what a tough life it was. And Testament of Youth is one of my favorites. I haven’t read anything by Thomas Kenealley and it sounds like (despite the appealing topic) that might not be the one to start with. The Story Keeper sounds good too – I really want to visit Skye but I think it will have to wait.
Yes, I thought The Light Between Oceans really conveyed what a tough, lonely life lighthouse keepers had to endure. I remember the Thomas Keneally book was supposed to imitate the style of real journals written during WWI, so no quotation marks and dashes instead of commas. I just found it distracting.
I love the sound of the Story Keeper, Helen. Woolf seems to challenge all of us one way or other I am starting to think. I have read To the Lighthouse but I think as I mentioned on Susan’s post too, for me, other than Flush her essays have worked better than her fiction (and so far its the ones on books and reading I’ve read most of)
I loved Flush and A Room of One’s Own, but I didn’t get on very well at all with To the Lighthouse and I had mixed feelings about Orlando. They are the only ones I’ve read so far, but I’ll try some of her others eventually.
I have to still read Room and Orlando. I didn’t mind Mrs Dalloway though when I first read it, the stream of consciousness style was new to me and it had my head spinning in all sorts of ways. Her ‘Common Reader’ bookish essays though I really enjoyed. And Flush of course!
Lovely chain! I read The Light Between Oceans a few years back and loved it. A beautiful, heartrending novel.
I’m glad you loved The Light Between Oceans – it’s such a beautiful book. It’s a shame ML Stedman doesn’t seem to have written anything else.
Lovely chain. I forgot that To the Lighthouse is set on the Isle of Skye, maybe because I read it years ago before I began blogging. I’ve read four of the books in your chain this time!
Thanks! I’m glad I remembered that To the Lighthouse is set on Skye as I was struggling to think of where to go next with my chain.
The only book I’ve read hre – and that was maybe 50 years ago – was the Vera Brittain. But this is a very appetising chain. I’m making notes!
They are all interesting books, even the ones I didn’t particularly enjoy!
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Excellent chain. Testament of Youth is an all-time favorite of mine. I also enjoyed Light Between the Oceans.
Thank you. I loved both of those books!
I have a Skye link in my chain this month too!
I did enjoy Light Between Oceans and The Daughter of Mars.
I’m glad you enjoyed those two! I loved Light Between Oceans but not so much The Daughters of Mars.
The Storykeeper sounds wonderful, I like the idea of travelling to collect stories! Lovely chain 🙂
My #6Degrees is here.
Thanks! Yes, I really enjoyed The Story Keeper and loved the setting.
I’m glad you enjoyed it and I love books with an atmospheric setting, this sounds like it would fit into that category haha 🙂