‘ Once Upon A River is an extended exploration of how we use storytelling to weave personal and collective truth out of memory, imagination, hopes, fears, and a need to find an answer. When I summarise the book, it sounds like a dry, academic, literary conceit. That’s where I start to stumble in writing a review. So, if it was that good, what was it about? I sank into it a chapter at a time like taking a warm bath at the end of a long day. In the end, I spent nearly three weeks in the thrall of this book not because it was sixteen hours long but because the storytelling was mesmerising and the language was gorgeous. I’m looking forward to the next sixteen hours.’ Best of all, the magic here is storytelling itself. The text flows like a river: smooth forward motion with hidden depths and currents. The language is a beautiful as the cover. This was my reaction after fifteen minutes: Still, my wife loved this book so I decided to jump right in. The fact that the audiobook is sixteen hours long also gave me pause. The Magical Realism tag attached to it almost discouraged me, it’s an oxymoron that seldom justifies either word. I bought ‘Once Upon A River’ for the gorgeous cover and the clever title. All I can do is share my experience of reading it and hope that it encourages you to read it too. This was such an extraordinary book that I’ve been trying for two weeks now to think of how to do it justice in a review.
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