Book review - The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand

This book was on all the book blogs about two years ago. I usually get the best sellers rather late but I am grateful that I do get them eventually. This was one of my lucky finds.

Greg and Tess are part of a group of four couples and one day whilst celebrating their twelfth anniversary they drown in a boating accident. How this incident tears the four couples apart, the secrets that unravel and the slow disintegration of their lives is the story.

The story is reminiscent of teenagers or maybe university students if its a Sri Lankan story. You meet others, form a group or clique and some of these in that group fall in love and get married so the ties that bind are more permanent. Whether these deaths are an accident or not, is also something that is never known - though it seems to be convenient for all if it is written as an accident so that the closure for all would be easy.

The book written in chapters denoting each of the four characters highlights the thoughts and feelings of each person both in the present time as well as in the past - particularly of the period where the past is relevant to the present times. This helped to connect the variant bits and pieces together and form a coherent picture of the whole.

Though it has been described as not a light story, there is a spirit of lightness about the whole story - it was an easy read as well just right for a lazy Saturday afternoon.