It is the late summer of 2021, and a girl named Nora is on the Paris Metro.
Nora, whose mother loved her, even though Nora was broken.
Nora, who couldn’t help her mother when her mother needed her most.
Nora, from whom the pandemic has taken nearly everything, save the object she clings to: a cylinder containing her mother’s ashes.
With no family left, no friends to speak of, and no way to turn back time, Nora has come to France to keep a promise she never got to make: to spread the ashes in a place her mother never got to see. But instead, Nora finds herself on the run through a forest in the night, taking refuge in a dark holloway. And when she wakes, and tries to make her way back to something she recognizes, she realizes that is impossible.
Because it is no longer 2021.
Questioning everything—including her own sanity—Nora sets out on a journey through a time and place completely foreign to her, and yet one that, much like the time and place she came from, is defined by death, loss, fear, and uncertainty. A journey in which she must find a way to honor her mother—and heal herself—in a world that feels irrevocably broken.
Holloway is definitely a slower read, but it is so worth it – so if a slower pace puts you off, but you really enjoy family dynamics between mothers and daughters (not always good ones) and exploring of found families and friendships, then you still may want to give this one a try. It’s definitely a story you should take your time with and absorb fully.
The relationship between Nora and her dead mother, and the revelations of what they were before her mother’s death, were quite an exploration in the dynamic where a parent thinks they know what is best for their child, but in fact they do not. The child coming to that realization is even more of a revelation in the story.
Nora’s story is a wonderful journey, not just in her realizations and healing but also in the time travel aspect. After dealing with the pandemic and losing her mother, she is heading to France to decide where to scatter her mother’s ashes, and that leads to her waking up in 1946. The lens through the world after the worst events of the pandemic juxtaposed with the view of post World War II Europe.
This is a heartfelt story with far more depth than you would originally think. The writing is beautiful and poignant and worth taking your time with.
Happy reading!
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The Wandering Wordsmith 