In a Nutshell: A literary fiction novel about a woman who finally learns how to deal with her unresolved grief. Slow and poignant but also rambling (in both its meanings.) Might be a good read for the right reader, but not my cup of tea. (Should have known better, considering it is a Booker-longlisted work.)

Plot Preview:
When Marianne was eight, her mom went missing, leaving behind a distraught husband, a forlorn daughter, and a newborn son. As the years go by, Marianne struggles to make sense of her grief, and tries to understand what might have gone through her mother’s mind in her final moments. When she discovers a medieval poem named ‘Pearl’ and sees its theme being similar to that of her life, she tries to see her life and her pain through the poem’s lens of loss and healing.
The story comes to us in Marianne’s first-person perspective.

I have a fondness for Irish writers. I have a dislike for Booker books (whether winner or longlisted.) I have a soft spot for literary fiction. I shun books that wallow in misery. I love character-oriented books. I avoid novels that are heavily prose-dominated. So this novel could have gone either way. Unfortunately for me (and the book), it went the way it shouldn’t have.

The plot begins with Marianne’s visit to her village for ‘The Wakes’, an annual trip she makes in the hope of seeing her mother again. She then starts reminiscing about her past, going back thirty years to when her mother disappeared and leading us through the interim period: her childhood hurt, her teen struggles, her adult uncertainty.

The book starts off strongly, with a poignant depiction of Marianne’s grief, her confusion about what might have happened, and her struggle to let go of the trauma and to live in the present. Until the narrative was focussed on Marianne’s childhood, I was invested in the story. But once the teen years start, the plot goes the typical way, trudging down the standard pitstops of teen rebellion such as drugs and alcohol and self-harm. I hoped for Marianne to come to her senses soon, but her adulthood seemed to be a series of one bad decision after another. Basically, it was like telling us that once you have trauma in your childhood, there’s no way of living a normal life personally or professionally.

The book depicts 1970s England and its atmosphere in a true-to-life manner. There are some interesting quotes at the start of every chapter, each taken from an Irish fictional work or folklore.

The themes of grief and coming-of-age are seen throughout the book. But these come to us in an endlessly rambling manner. It was listening to one long self-pitying story. I hoped that the ending would make things better, and it did, to a great extent. The parting chapter was beautiful and bittersweet, with some thought-provoking poetic lines.

Because of the first-person narration, we don’t get to know the other characters as intimately as we know Marianne. I’d especially have loved to know more about her father Edward and her daughter Susanna. It was interesting to see how Marianne always referred to her father as “Edward” but her mom was “my mother.”

The titular ‘Pearl’ has a strong presence through the book. ‘Pearl’, poet unknown, is a 14th-century poem that is considered one of the most important surviving Middle English works and has elements of allegory and dreams. It is present only in a single manuscript at the British Library in London. I read up a summary of the poem in order to better understand its role in this book, and this prep helped somewhat.

I found it interesting to learn that this novel has been forty years in the making. The author used to cycle past a broken-down house in the same village as ‘Pearl’ is set. She then invented characters for the house and began working on this novel. But perhaps the extended writing period created this meandering prose with minimal plot. (Then again, this was longlisted for the Booker, so whom am I kidding! It must hold at least some literary merit for prose lovers!)

I completed this debut work only because I had to complete it. This wasn’t written for us plot-aficionados. The introspective parts where Marianne wonders about the what-ifs and what-might-have-beens are the best. The parts about teen rebellion and going off track in adulthood are boring.

Basically, this is for those lit fic lovers who rejoice in Booker-type books, who value prose over plot, who believe that merit-worthy stories are necessarily dark and gritty stories that delve into human misery. The whole book is essentially segments of musings and introspection, so make sure you are in the right (prose-loving) mood if you intend to pick this up.

2 stars.

My thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for providing the DRC of “Pearl” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Sorry this didn’t work out better.

Pearl is a beautifully written debut novel by the Welsh poet Sian Hughes. We find our narrator, Marianne, recounting her life's story. At age 8, Marianne's mother disappears and Marianne is forced to confront her grief and trauma and how it plays out throughout her life and within her own motherhood.

Pearl is a slight story but it packs a punch. There's a depth here that many authors couldn't grasp at with several hundred pages. Hughes manages to paint the story so tenderly. This one will stay with readers for a long, long time.

Pearl is wonderfully written and an enveloping journey into Marianne's coping with loss, grief, reconciliation of what happened to her missing mother, and post-partum depression. Definitely a novel not to be missed.

A really beautifully written story about losing a parent and living with that grief and loss for the rest of your life. This was a moving story, and I loved the way the author stitched the pieces together to create something really emotional.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a DRC in exchange for my honest review!

I tried three times to get through this book. I even restarted from the beginning but could not stick with it. There was something I found off-putting in the main character that made it difficult to want to read and care about her story.

A short novel that gives an intensive look at grief and its effects on those left behind. A young mother disappears shortly after giving birth and her 8-year-old daughter finds the remainder of her life is a struggle to understand it. Just as important is the novel’s study of memory, how we struggle to hold on to important bits of the past but the more time that passes, the more confused those memories become.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Publishing for the ARC to read and review.

Marianne lost her mother when she was just a child and as a mother now herself, she sifts through her hazy memories to try and piece together the woman who left her family so long ago. Based on a medieval poem of the same name, PEARL is a beautifully rendered portrait of childhood, motherhood, and the lasting effects of trauma. A heart wrenching and quietly life-affirming meditation on loss, grief, and the love that lives on through our memories.

DNF @45%

I had hopes at the beginning of this book, but it quickly became clear that the beginning, middle and end are all the same according to other reviews. The story seems stagnant, it consists of an abundance of memories from a girl whose mother disappeared when she was young. The narrative lacks momentum, and i found little to no incentive to continue the story. I feel like I’m just reading sad flashbacks over and over again but no new content in the present moment that keeps the story moving.

There’s some lovely, poetic, vivid writing here and a genuine sense of loss, nevertheless I found the book indulgent and grating. Too monotone. Too much of a perspective that didn’t enchant, rather irritated in its fixity..
I know, the book was Booker longlisted, but I hold to my opinion. Nevertheless, she’s an interesting writer and I hope her next book will reach further.

Marianne is eight when her mother disappears and leaves behind a husband, a daughter, and an infant son. The story is told through Marianne's memories of her close relationship with her mother and how the pain of losing that relationship at such a young age affected and continues to affect her life now as a mother herself.

The story itself felt confusing to me as a reader at times, which also made it feel very slow paced. I could not connect with Marianne and could not understand her choices and behavior. But I did enjoy the ending and the realization she has that felt like she could finally take a breath after all those years.

Pearl, by Siân Hughes, is a gift of a book that explores motherhood, daughterhood, and the lengths women will go to understand themselves within and beyond these roles. It was in some ways a difficult book to read because of the pain it explores, but Hughes addresses these issues in a thoughtful, meditative way. It's no surprise that this novel was long-listed for the Booker Prize.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC; all opinions are my own.

In Ireland, Marianne is only eight years old when her mother disappears. She spends the upcoming years keeping the memories of her mother close and grappling with her absence.

She discovers a book of poems titled Pearl that helps to guide her through the loss of her mother while navigating motherhood herself.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review Pearl.

“When someone takes their life, they don’t only steal the future out from under our feet, they also desecrate their past. It makes it hard to hold on to the good things about them. And no one deserves to be judged on the worst five minutes of their life, even if those five minutes turn out to their last.” When 8 yr old Marianne’s mum walks out the door and never returns her loss is palpable. Homeschooled by her mother Marianne shares with us the loving relationship they had creating things, singing songs, gardening and reading as she tries to understand why her mother would do this. No body, no letter, no answers leave Marianne troubled throughout her life. Edward her father is at a loss and now is a single parent to Marianne and her baby brother Joseph. Marianne brings us back to her mother helping us to understand her with memories whether accurate or embellished and with sweet simple things like smells and spirits.

“I wanted to talk to her so many times,” spoke to me as I think every one of us would like one more opportunity to speak with our mums. This book touched my soul for its deeply personal way of dealing with motherly loss, suicidal loss and the effects on children.

Many thanks to #NetGalley and #Knopf for this ARC of #Pearl.



I wanted to talk to her so many times

Oof. The mixture of my mommy issues, childhood trauma, fear of failing as a parent and fear of abandonments were called out and screamed into a microphone while reading Pearl. This was a tad triggering. The way our MC navigated these things and her inner monologue was earnest and didn’t feel like fiction.

I love the slim length of this story, which feels perfect for Marianne's journey of self discovery. There is no unnecessary filler here. I wish more authors and publishers recognized the immense power in brevity.

This is a delicate portrait of grief, and the author does a wonderful job of conveying time and place. The narrator goes from having an idyllic childhood in rural England to being thrust into a new life when her mother sudden disappears. I particularly enjoyed how, as Marianne is older, she tries to find out what happened to her mother and, in the process, she learns more about herself. This is very rewarding for the reader.

How does the past impact the present? The theme is explored elegantly and with universal appeal.

Poignant and touching, this novel is highly recommended for fans of literary fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance e-galley; all opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

I added this to my library because it was auto-approved for anyone, but I got accepted for more advanced reader copies than I thought I would for the time being so unfortunately this has to get moved down the totem pole in terms of priority.

Will update here if I do get around to reading it prior to the release! Anticipated rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I loved Pearl. I can see why it was nominated for the Booker Prize. I appreciated the author's insight into grief and loss of losing a mother. I liked the narrator of the audiobook as well. The poems at the start of each chapter were interesting but didn't add a ton to the overall story.

This one is for fans of literary fiction. Marianne has been grieving her mother since she was a child and now she's on the journey of motherhood herself. Hughes explores grief using a 14th century poem as a touchstone. I found this more challenging and less enjoyable than I'd hoped but it's admirable. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I've wanted to read Siân Hughes' debut novel Pearl since it was longlisted for the Booker Prize, amongst a great slate of titles, but it wasn't published in the U.S. until now. Hughes' novel follows Marianne, a woman returning to her hometown for a yearly tradition called The Wakes. A day in which the village remembers those who have passed, it sparks Marianne's narration of her mother's disappearance when she was a child and the troubled years that followed.

Pearl has a quiet, devastating way of showing the effects of Marianne and her family's grief, sorrow, guilt, memory, and lack of understanding or answers. Hughes' writing is reflective and insightful, often capturing an unspoken part of grief so perfectly, and captures the changing understanding and thoughts of a child to a teenager to a young adult so well, while balancing Marianne's look back as a grown adult and mother herself. The novel is also tied to two medieval poems that her mother loved and that Marianne, in turn, obsessed over in the wake of her disappearance, as well as various stories that her mother told her, her eccentricities, and the unusual ways she raised Marianne. While a bit meandering and very internal, Hughes brings together the reflections and understandings Marianne has come to for a satisfying ending, and the novel is overall very compelling and poignant.

Siân Hughes' "Pearl" is a mesmerizing exploration of grief, family secrets, and the search for identity. This novel, with its lyrical prose and deeply evocative imagery, invites readers into the quiet, haunting world of Marianne, a woman trying to piece together her past and understand the legacy of her mother's disappearance.

The story begins with young Marianne living an idyllic childhood in rural England, overshadowed by the sudden and mysterious disappearance of her mother. This event becomes the defining moment of Marianne’s life, casting a long shadow over her formative years and into adulthood. As she grows older, Marianne becomes consumed with unraveling the truth behind her mother’s departure, a quest that leads her down a path of discovery and self-realization.

Hughes excels at creating a vivid sense of place and time, her descriptions of the English countryside almost poetic in their beauty. This setting serves as a stark contrast to the dark, underlying currents of the narrative. The prose is both delicate and powerful, capturing the raw emotions of Marianne’s journey with precision and grace.

The character of Marianne is deeply compelling. Hughes portrays her with a rare depth and sensitivity, making her pain and confusion palpable. Marianne’s quest to understand her mother and, by extension, herself, is fraught with emotional highs and lows. Her interactions with her family, especially her father, are portrayed with an authenticity that is both heart-wrenching and hopeful.

"Pearl" delves into themes of memory, loss, and the ways in which the past shapes the present. Hughes does not shy away from the complexities of these themes, presenting them with a nuanced understanding that adds layers of depth to the narrative. The mystery of Marianne’s mother’s disappearance is gradually unraveled, revealing unexpected truths and forcing Marianne to confront uncomfortable realities.

What makes "Pearl" truly stand out is Hughes’ ability to weave a story that is both intensely personal and universally relatable. The novel's exploration of familial bonds, the search for truth, and the longing for closure are themes that resonate deeply. Hughes’ writing is marked by a profound empathy for her characters, making their journeys feel intimate and real.

In conclusion, "Pearl" is a beautifully crafted novel that stays with you long after you turn the last page. Siân Hughes has created a poignant, thought-provoking story that explores the intricate dance between past and present, and the enduring quest for identity and understanding. It’s a powerful reminder of the resilience of the human spirit and the enduring power of love and memory.