Australian writer Favel Parrett’s beautifully expressed When the Night Come made quite an impression on me when it was published in the UK back in 2014. It was its Antarctica setting that first attracted me but it was Parrett’s gorgeous writing that left me wanting more. It’s clear from its dedication that There Was Still Love is a tribute to her beloved grandparents, borne out by her note at the end of this lovely novel that takes us back and forth from Prague to Melbourne in the early ‘80s, following two sisters separated in 1938 at the beginning of the German occupation.
In 1980, Ludĕk runs up and down the streets of Prague before flying home to his grandmother’s tiny flat. It’s just the two of them. Ludĕk’s mother is a dancer, on tour with the Black Theatre, only allowed out of the country if her son stays at home, and his father is dead. Meanwhile, his cousin Malá Liška lives with her grandparents in a Melbourne apartment decorated as if it’s been transported from Prague. Once an engineer, her grandfather works as a night watchman. He and her grandmother cut every corner so that Máňa can visit her sister Eva and their grandnephew, Ludĕk, every four years. Malá Liška has never met her cousin, staying with her uncle for six weeks while her adored grandparents are away. The sisters’ reunions are full of reminiscence. Eva and Máňa talk while Ludĕk and Bill walk the city, often revisiting the house that Bill lived in when he was called Vilém. Ludĕk doesn’t know his Aunty Máňa and Uncle Bill’s story but he knows not to mention the war. When his mother returns with her partner and a baby, the new family moves away leaving Ludĕk’s whole world behind. One day, Malá Liška will see pictures of this cousin she’s never met when his grandmother comes to Australia.
Parrett unfolds her story in impressionistic episodes, much of it from Ludĕk’s perspective, punctuated with snapshots of the family’s history reflecting the cataclysmic events that overtook Czechoslovakia. Ludĕk’s sections are fresh and immediate, the language clear and bright as he seizes his freedom, making Prague his own running through its streets when his grandmother thinks he’s playing in the park. There’s an aching homesickness underpinning the novel with its recurrent motif of suitcases. Máňa and Bill still live like exiles, recreating Prague in their tiny Melbourne flat, each forced to leave the country they loved through circumstance. While Bill is more pragmatic, Máňa yearns for her sister. Parrett’s tender portrayal of this couple who love each other and their granddaughter dearly is beautifully executed. Such a touching novel, a work of fiction as Parrett makes clear in her author’s note, but undoubtedly a testament to the lives of the grandparents she adored.
Sceptre Books: London 2020 9781529343557 224 pages Hardback
Really like the story of this one, the setting of Czechoslovakia especially appeals. This kind of family story is often so touching.
I think you’d like this one, Ali. The writing is beautiful and the story a poignant one.
This does sound interesting. Lovely review as always.
Thanks,, Janet. It’s beautifully done – written with a great deal of love.
This does sound beautiful. I’ve not read Parrett but I definitely want to.
Her writing is gorgeous. Such a moving book. I hope you love it as much as I did.
Sounds like a book I would enjoy. Too bad it’s not in the libraries here – the closest reply I got from the catalogue was “Handbook on external consulting ” by F. Parrett but that doesn’t sound like it!
Sadly, not! I hope you can find some way of getting your hands on a copy.
I still need to read this. I like the Australian cover much better than the UK one, which looks a bit twee to me.
So very different! I don’t think I’d pick the UK one up if I didn’t know Parett’s writing which is a shame. The jacket’s meant to evoke the Melbourne flat, I assume, but you’d have to read it to get that.
I can imagine the couple making almost a shrine in the home in Melbourne just to keep their connection to their homeland. Something many migrants do I suspect particularly among the older generation
I’m sure that’s true, Karen. In Parrett’s novel it also serves to underline how much Máňa misses her sister as well as what still thinks of as her home.
That cover is a bit of a surprise!
So glad you enjoyed this book. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it wins the Stella Prize.
Kim pointed out the startling difference from the Australian edition. You’d think those jackets were for totally different novels. It’ll be on my Women’s Prize for Fiction wishlist tomorrow.Let’s hope our wishes come true!
I hadn’t thought about the Women’s Prize but now that you mention it, fingers are crossed!
Posting my wishlist tomorrow…