Everything is Beautiful
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley March 13, 2021
Author Eleanor Ray
Distributor: Hachette Australia
ISBN: 9780349427423
Publisher: Hachette Australia
Release Date: February 2021
Website: https://www.hachette.com.au/eleanor-ray/
It was something little that caused all the fuss originally, something little like keeping the daily papers to re-read, just in case some vital piece of information was missed. This lead on to collecting things; bottles, ceramic birds, pots and anything that was colourful, pretty and could be recycled.
It was this ‘recycling’ which in the end lead to freedom, which was really very interesting and complex as Amy Ashton’s world, the one she had rebuilt ever so very carefully, slowly fell to bits. This also began with a simple little thing; a broken yellow coffee cup, dropped when the new neighbours were moving in.
Amy Ashton fell deeply in love with Tim when they were both young. She was an art student, he was the songwriter and guitarist in the band Squashed Pumpkins. Their love was strong, deep and monumental. Amy was an artist, Tim was a musician and her best friend since always, Chantel was there, part of the group, living life on the edge, until they both disappeared on the night Amy was due home from an artist’s workshop in Italy.
Twelve years on there was still no solution to the mystery. After a beloved pot is shattered in the carefully ordered mess in her garden, she discovers a ring, not any ring, the one she and Tim had looked at in an Antique shop one special day, she begins to think there is, as she has always believed, more to the missing persons, run away together scenario the Police believed happened.
Richard and his two young boys have moved in next door and no matter how hard she tries to keep herself distant from these people who may damage all her beautiful things, they gently, and often traumatically, begin to inch into her life creating chaos but in doing so, slowly show her a pathway forward.
Everything is Beautiful looks at the often strange and complex pathway carved out by grief, endings, beginnings and love, all of which when mixed together by Eleanor Ray, have resulted in a big hearted work of fiction that takes a box of things, Amy’s beloved treasures, to eventually open the door to a rich new beginning.
Heart-warming and delightful Everything is Beautiful is the epitome of a feel good book written with heart, understanding and a quirky sense of humour which captivates until the very last page.