Beyond That, the Sea: A Novel
£6.60
“Spence-Ash has written the novel in eight points of view, but each character is utterly three-dimensional and distinct. This debut novel captivated me from start to finish.”
—Julia Quinn, author of the Bridgerton Series
A sweeping, tenderhearted love story, Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash tells the story of two families living through World War II on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and the shy, irresistible young woman who will call them both her own.
As German bombs fall over London in 1940, working-class parents Millie and Reginald Thompson make an impossible choice: they decide to send their eleven-year-old daughter, Beatrix, to America. There, she’ll live with another family for the duration of the war, where they hope she’ll stay safe.
Scared and angry, feeling lonely and displaced, Bea arrives in Boston to meet the Gregorys. Mr. and Mrs. G, and their sons William and Gerald, fold Bea seamlessly into their world. She becomes part of this lively family, learning their ways and their stories, adjusting to their affluent lifestyle. Bea grows close to both boys, one older and one younger, and fills in the gap between them. Before long, before she even realizes it, life with the Gregorys feels more natural to her than the quiet, spare life with her own parents back in England.
As Bea comes into herself and relaxes into her new life—summers on the coast in Maine, new friends clamoring to hear about life across the sea—the girl she had been begins to fade away, until, abruptly, she is called home to London when the war ends.
Desperate as she is not to leave this life behind, Bea dutifully retraces her trip across the Atlantic back to her new, old world. As she returns to post-war London, the memory of her American family stays with her, never fully letting her go, and always pulling on her heart as she tries to move on and pursue love and a life of her own.
As we follow Bea over time, navigating between her two worlds, Beyond That, the Sea emerges as a beautifully written, absorbing novel, full of grace and heartache, forgiveness and understanding, loss and love.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Celadon Books (21 Mar. 2023) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 2677 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 351 pages |
by little bookworm
1940, and as bombs fall on London, Reg and Millie Thompson decide to send their eleven year old daughter Beatrix to America, to stay with the Gregory family, who have kindly volunteered to take her in. So Bea arrives in Boston, scared and alone, however, for the next five years she finds herself ensconced into the warm and loving household of the Gregorys. There is the motherly Mrs G, the quiet Mr G, and the two boys, William and Gerald, both worlds apart and yet both so dear to her. There are idyllic summers spent at the Gregory’s island house, off the coast in Maine, and it is in America, that Bea grows into the woman she is to become. However, then the war is over and it is time to return to London. Over the years Bea tries desperately to move on with her life, yet her heart seems to be torn between two places, two families, the past refusing to let go.
This was an evocative debut novel from Laura Spence-Ash, and one that I enjoyed taking my time to savour. A character-driven book, the story itself is slow-paced, and stretching across an expanse of over 3 decades, can seem meandering at times, however, I found myself deeply invested in the myriad characters’ lives from start to finish.
The book is told from multiple character perspectives, which I think really helped to connect with all the main characters and bring each voice to life. Beatrix as the central character was particularly easy to like from the off, this young girl finding herself on a different Continent in a time of war, separated from her parents and away from everything she has ever known. She grows into a thoughtful young woman, and yet that sense of displacement never quite leaves her, for returning to London five years later, it is not the same place and she is not the same person, and yet she is expected to simply forget the family she has grown to love.
It was fascinating to get the different parents’ perspectives too. There are Millie and Reg in London, desperately missing their daughter and yet doing what they believe best for her. It was interesting to see the strain this put on their marriage too, particularly as Millie is more resentful than her husband on missing out on her daughter’s growing up, and later we see the tensions this causes in her relationship with Beatrix too. At the same time you see Mrs G, who has always wanted a daughter, completing embracing Bea, whilst Mr G, aware that she is only with them for a short while, urges his wife to be more cautious.
Spence-Ash does a really good job of exploring all these different perspectives, but also shows growth and change in her characters over time, as well as changes in the relationships depicted, such that nothing is ever static, and no character seems one-dimensional. For instance, where Millie could often come across as dislikable in her resentment almost of the Gregorys, as the story went on, her longing to forge a closer relationship with Bea was actually quite touching, and I liked how in the end she helped to ease the way for Bea to finally reconnect with the Gregorys. Yes, perhaps she should have done so a long time before, however, she got their in the end, and I liked the complex mother-daughter relationship portrayed.
Other characters too were far from perfect, but all the more real for it, William for instance, always longing for something else, never quite content with his lot. Rose is introduced as a new character voice in the second half of the story, as a new addition to the family, and did take a little warming to, however, I liked that she proved to have more depth and inner resources than initial impressions suggested.
The first half of the novel focusing on Bea’s initial stay with the Gregory’s was perhaps the part I enjoyed the most, perhaps because it is the part the author takes her time with most, and is important for what comes later. There were parts in the middle that perhaps seemed a little meandering, and yet in the overall context did make sense, and even when not much was actually happening, the characters’ thoughts and feelings still shone through.
The book does overall have a somewhat melancholy feel to it, in particular the second half. There are character deaths, characters with regrets and a continuous theme of displacement. However, there was a lot of warmth and moments of joy too. The book, particularly, the second half is filled with a lot of nostalgia for childhood days and more innocent times, and the passage of time seems to be a theme of the book in and of itself, in terms of how it changes people, and how much no matter how hard you wish it, there can never be any going back.
Romance does feature in the book, but is certainly not the main aspect. I enjoyed the different depictions of Bea’s first love, and later in the story the more mature love that evolves with another character. I liked how the novel ended, though perhaps found some of the later chapters a bit more rushed and would have liked to spend more time with the characters in the latter parts, however, perhaps that was just because I had grown so attached to them by that stage.
A coming of age story, a story about families and love in many different forms, told in a gentle but evocative way. I shall certainly keep an eye out for any future offerings from the author.