The Story Collector
Sarah Harper lives in New York, her marriage is on the rocks, and she drinks too much. She arrives at Newark Airport for a flight to spend Christmas in Boston with her family. While waiting and drinking to calm her nerves, she reads a newspaper report about Ireland that intrigues her. She boards the plane, falls asleep and wakes up at Shannon Airport, yes, in Ireland.
Sarah rents a cottage, then finds an old journal in a hollow tree and so a strange and magical tale told unfolds. The first is Sarah’s stay in a hired cottage in Ireland and the people she meets; the second is what is written in the journal. This takes us back to the 19th century when Anna, a simple farm girl, is hired as an Irish-English translator by an American, Harold Griffin-Klaus, who arrives in the village of Thornwood to research folktales and legends. The two tales thereby become entwined and Sarah reads on.
On one level, The Story Collector is an engaging modern love story with a lot of coincidences and oddness, such as how on earth did no-one notice that Sarah was on the wrong flight? Could it be magic? The 19th-century tale is much darker and asks questions about the human condition. I was totally gripped until, towards the end, both timelines rushed headlong to the end. On reflection, I would have preferred to read a more detailed 19th-century story alone. Having said that, this is an intriguing novel with its combination of Irish hardship and charm.
