The Great Godden

Meg Rosoff’s beautifully written coming of age story echoes classical literature. We follow a family on their annual holiday to the seaside full of sun, Great Gatsby styled summer lunches and spending time outdoors. The yearly holiday is halted when a serpent enters Eden, with the arrival of two visitors. Kit and Hugo are distant family friends who are abandoned by their mother for the summer and left with the family during their holiday. Kit and Hugo are opposites in every way. Kit is beautiful, golden and charismatic. Hugo is shy, silent, often resisting all overtures with his talent for selective invisibility. The brothers leave an impression on the family during their summer at the sea. They break the trance of summer feelings that they family usually have and instead usher in teen angst, intrigue, treachery and massive deception.

The summer is narrated by one of the children in the family. We are never told an age, or gender or even the name of the narrator. While I chose to read the story narrated in the voice of a female, who despite watching Kit seemingly waltz between family members, infiltrating the summer of fun they always had. The narrator still can’t help but fall for Kit, even after everything he’s done. While you can approach this story with the lens of a love story, it is everything but that. It’s a story about being blinded by love, hurt by love and deceived by love. Rosoff writes of a summer gone awry, filled with change, love and yearning. This book is a quick read, easy to devour, and lends itself to all readers.