This book is narrated by Margaret Bryce. She’s the wife of Henry, the mother of twins Eva and Rachel, grandmother to Rachel’s two sons and she’s dead. This isn’t a spoiler, it’s pretty obvious from early on that she’s revisiting events from her past and her family’s past and also some scenes from their lives after her death. Her narration is playful (she jokes about standing with no legs etc) and filled with love for her family. There is no specific timeline, it jumps around all over the place and it’s clear there’s a painful moment that she’s avoiding. The writing is excellent and for the most part i enjoyed it, I can’t say when it became unsatisfying. I found myself getting bored with the scene setting each time jump, where they are, how old they are, comments on hair and clothes….get on with it already! So much so that the big reveal fell a bit flat (oh I should’ve seen that coming I thought!). Perhaps if it had been shorter….

A Country of Eternal Light attracted me for its unusual premise and the fact that I am a sucker for books where characters reflect on their lives - even if this one happens to be dead (or maybe especially so?)

Margaret is reliving memories of her life as her ‘spirit’ has not yet crossed over. She was just an ordinary person reflecting on some of the key moments and people from her life. Some of the themes are heavy and the author tries to balance it with humour - often from Margaret’s throwaway comments. It is undoubtedly a clever story with very clever writing. Yet for me, I came away not as enamoured with it as many others have. There are a lot of time jumps with short sharp snippets from the various aspects of Margaret’s life. On the one hand I understand this approach for logistical and reflective purposes. However, on the flip side, it never allowed me to dive in deep and become a part of this reflective tale. The clever ending is certainly emotional almost to the point of needing to go back and reread with now fresh and enlightened eyes.

A Country of Eternal Light is poignant, sad and bittersweet in that Margaret still feels something is missing. I recommend this unusual and meandering book to readers who like their stories to be unique and left of centre with a strong finish.


‘I’m not vain. Or I am, but I don’t want to be, because vanity working on a weak head produces mischief and inadvertantly leads to familial catastrophe. Did Jane Austen write that? Or something similar? I used to read a lot, when I had eyes, my weak head trained on the page. I’m less self-regulating now, maybe.’





This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

A Country of Eternal Light by Paul Dalgarno is a hard book to review. It's amazingly written. The concept is very clever and Dalgarno's prose switch from a fairly chatty and mundane narrative to something more confronting… jolting readers out of our comfort zone and reminding us that the narrator is (in fact) dead.

“I’m not vain. Or I am, but I don’t want to be, because vanity working on a weak head produces mischief and inadvertantly leads to familial catastrophe. Did Jane Austen write that? Or something similar? I used to read a lot, when I had eyes, my weak head trained on the page. I’m less self-regulating now, maybe.” p 3

That's not a spoiler by the way, as the back cover blurb tells us of Margaret’s death.

Dalgarno jumps about in time a lot.. We're offered snippets. Events. Things that obviously have some importance to Margaret. In some ways there is a 'present' woven into the story. An arc - circling 2014 - the time of her death. This does allow readers to be grounded, but the challenge I had with the excerpts from other times - Margaret's childhood, the early years of her marriage, when she first became a mother, the lead up to her death and the years since - is that they were just that. Snapshots. I didn't feel they gave me anything tangible to hold onto. I suspect Dalgarno is trying to do just that - mirror what life must be like, how confusing it might be for Margaret, (or indeed someone looking back on their life and what comes after) to revisit the past.

On one hand I can recognise that it’s a clever ploy and the lack of control there for a reason, but for logic-loving me it meant I didn't engage as much as I would have liked with Margaret and her family.

The other challenge I had here is that Dalgarno is obviously very learned and knows a lot about literature and, well… I'm not and I don't. Commercial fiction is my bag. So though I can recognise the beauty of his writing and elegance of his prose, it occurred to me that I was perhaps not his target audience.

He's able to casually reference Dante, Cervantes, Pre-Christian Pythagoreans, Thales of Miletus and Barthes in a way that doesn't necessarily sound pretentious but - though obviously prosaic to him - zoomed a little over my head.

I remember feeling the same way about Charlotte Wood's The Natural Way of Things. I finished the book and recognised it was beautifully written but knew I didn't 'get' it in the way I should.

But, back to my point - which is why I'm still giving it 4 stars (which it certainly deserves - or more! - and regular readers of my reviews will know that's a good score from me)…. [the concept] is beautifully crafted and delivered.

There's also some fascinating insight into Margaret's family. We spend time with her twins - Rachel and Eva, as children and adults - and we ponder their estrangement. And then there’s the kinda turbulent relationship Margaret had with her husband and the girl’s father.

Books featuring now-dead narrators aren’t new, Lovely Bones certainly started something. But Dalgarno manages to offer readers something different, something unique; a growing sense of awareness from deceased-Margaret as she’s watching another version of herself and the lives of her loved ones when she's no longer there. It’s poignant and bittersweet and made even more so as Margaret’s sense that - despite having lived through it once - there’s a piece of her life missing.

This was a strange, meandering sort of book. Maggie is dead, but she is searching her soul, going back through her life. We see Maggie at various stages of her life. She watches herself as a young telephonist in Scotland, finding romance, a married woman with children and visiting her daughter in Australia. She ponders about all sorts of philosophical and historical information as well, such as Mary, Queen of Scots. It's an extremely unusual book which makes you think about our travels through our lives, and what we are doing here. Although written in an ethereal style, Maggie comes from the working-class, so it can be gritty at times.

I recommend this to readers who like unusual novels. I liked Paul Dalgarno's writing, so I'd like to read more of his books.

I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

The afterlife is a curious thing. Does it exist? Is it real? Are people watching us? Is the idea of the afterlife one to comfort us who are left without our loved ones, or a thought to take with you on your journey to wherever we go when we die? Or like Margaret, have we not worked out how to let go?
Margaret is dead. Plain and simple. She dies in 2014, to be exact, and hear dead-life hasn’t really been great for her. She is hanging on to moments across her life, and the lives of those who are still continuing on which she recalls and visits with great clarity. They appear out of order, to relive, and to watch. We get to know Margaret in the afterlife, and also in-life. It seems harder for Margaret to find peace with some moments in life, even after death. This is one book to read to be able to get through what happens, so I will not leave any spoilers. What I will say is that there is more to life than this, and even in death, there seem to be more life in death as well. Such a unique book I devoured in one sitting – find it and read it! Thanks to NetGalley for the gifted copy.