Fancy A Trip To Mallorca?

Some of my friends traveled to far away lands this past summer: Russia, Greece, Italy. I was not so lucky. However, thanks to Peter Nichol’s wonderful new novel, The Rocks, I spent a delightful few weeks transported to the sun-drenched Mediterranean isle of Mallorca. But this is not just a light-hearted beach read. Underneath the sunny exterior, The Rocks tells a double love story and reveals a tragic secret as the plot unravels backwards in time.

Lulu is a free-spirited expat Englishwoman who runs a hotel, The Rocks, overlooking the sea. Her ex-husband Gerald, owns a small olive and citrus orchard a few miles down the road. Once, deliriously in love, they separated inexplicably the day after their honeymoon and haven’t spoken in 50 years. Luc, Lulu’s son from a second marriage, and Aegina, Gerald’s daughter with his beloved Mallorcan wife, try to overcome their parents’ enmity, but their own love is thwarted by a family history they don’t understand.

By telling the tale in reverse, moving backwards through time as characters become ever younger, The Rocks is propelled by a kind of fatalistic energy that is both engaging and discomforting. We already know what has happened (I won’t give that away), because it’s related in the first few pages. Now we want to know why. It’s a conceit, but one that works well.

A great story coupled with a beautiful location, told in an unusual way. That about sums up Peter Nichol’s The Rocks. It was a book I looked forward to reading every evening; like going on vacation and meeting some very interesting characters along the way. I hope you like it as much as I did.

You can reserve Peter Nichols, The Rocks, here.