4.5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨
This novel has been on my TBR list since it was released in 2021, when one of the blog posts I participate in chose it as the starting book for September I thought it was time I read it. I was thrilled to find it on audiobook and the two narrators Tamala Shelton and Shari Sebbons did such a wonderful job bringing Jasmine and Della to life for me.
This story of family, past traumas, connection and learning, was a gentle story that pulled me in and allowed me to get to know these ladies and Auntie Elaine and appreciate some of the traumas and experiences of Aboriginal people and learn some of their stories.
The story is told in dual points of view but during the same time period, so we get Della's experience of each day and then her daughters which I found really interesting, seeing how each woman saw and felt about what happened during the day.
Jasmine invited her mother Della on a 10 day literary tour in the UK in the hope of getting to know her better and forming a connection that was lost when she left for the city.
I connected more with Della throughout this story, as she experiences and learns about things she's never heard of or come across before and these bring back memories and stories told to her by Auntie Elaine from their Indigenous culture. I loved how she engaged with and showed interest in the things she came across, how she asked questions which also allowed the people she met to feel heard and how the experiences gave her new passions for her future and understandings of her past. I also enjoyed hearing her thoughts about everything she learnt, the people she met and the past.
Della has had a lot of trauma in her past and alcohol has been her way of coping for many years which is a point of contention between her and Jasmine. During the holiday Della buys a notebook and takes notes of things she finds interesting, goals she wants to achieve, like making a garden when she returns to her home in Australia and she also starts recording stories told by Auntie Elaine and memories that come up that she has kept hidden form Jasmine.
Jasmine has also suffered the trauma of losing her sister and the effect that had on her mum and dad and sisters. She's always wanted to escape the community she grew up in and tried to distance herself from her sister and parents and because of this her relationship with her mum has suffered. At the start of the tour I felt she was ashamed of her mum which I found sad and she wondered why she'd invited her to come. I liked seeing how Jasmine's opinion of her changes near the end of the tour and how she slowly forms a closer bond with Della.
This was a gentle story, I don't know how else to describe it, but it covered some serious topics and the consequences of those traumas, decisions made, trauma and generational trauma. I really enjoyed this tale and didn't want to stop listening each time I turned it on, I was hopeful for both Jasmine and Della's future relationship and I hope Della gets her garden
. I don't know that I've managed to do this story justice with my thoughts on it but I recommend you pick it up and travel this path with Della and Jasmine.
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About the book
When Indigenous lawyer Jasmine decides to take her mother Della on a tour of England's most revered literary sites, Jasmine hopes it will bring them closer together and help them reconcile the past.
Twenty-five years earlier the disappearance of Jasmine's older sister devastated their tight-knit community. This tragedy returns to haunt Jasmine and Della when another child mysteriously goes missing on Hampstead Heath. As Jasmine immerses herself in the world of her literary idols – including Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters and Virginia Woolf – Della is inspired to rediscover the wisdom of her own culture and storytelling. But sometimes the stories that are not told can become too great to bear.
Ambitious and engrossing, After Story celebrates the extraordinary power of words and the quiet spaces between. We can be ready to listen, but are we ready to hear?
Duration: 8 hours 20 minutes.
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