This is a compelling and disturbing novel centering around 3 people who clearly love each other but who have deep problems. Set in the South Island of New Zealand, and incorporating Maori myth and language, the reader is immediately thrust into a realistic story that at the same time has a dream-like quality about it. The story opens when Kerewin, a hermit, falls asleep outside on the beach. When she wakes up she finds a little sandal. Upon going home she finds an 8 year-old boy, the owner of the sandal, perched in a high window in her house. The boy's name is Simon, he's mute, and he has in fact injured his foot. Kerewin finds herself, as the novel progresses, intertwined in the life of Simon and his adoptive father, Joe
This is a very well-written novel, some of it was difficult for me to get through, I must admit, because there are scenes of violence against children. But I think an author that gets you into a novel enough to make you feel quite strongly about her characters has managed her craft very well.
Just finished this book on the train ride home today. It is quite a tome, but I enjoyed reading it. The story centers on two sisters, Laura and Iris Chase. One of them died shortly after WWII by suicide, the other is an old woman in 1999 recalling her life and the life and death of her sister. Within this novel are two other narratives: the first one follows two lovers (one of the sisters and a young man) meeting clandestinely in the 1930s; the other narrative is a story that the lovers are sharing with each other. This story shared becomes the title of the actual book, The Blind Assassin, as well as the title of the fictional book written by Laura Chase and published after her death by her sister. 