At The Grand Glacier Hotel – Laurence Fearnley

READ FOR NZ BOOK AWARDS

Libby Holt is on holiday with husband Curtis but due to unforeseen circumstances she ends up staying at the majestic Grand Glacier Hotel by herself. A new friendship and a quest with hidden clues keep her entertained but her concerns return to her ailing health. This is the third of Fearnley’s novels aimed at the senses, this book being built on the experience of sound.

Though I had played out numerous scenarios of my death, ranging from the quietly dignified to the tragically operatic, I had never imagined that I might die in a puddle on a nature walk.

●  I felt enveloped by the almost mystical setting of the West Coast while reading and felt myself often wanting to return to At the Grand Glacier Hotel not so much for the storyline, but more so for the sense of place and how it made me feel. The author did well to accurately depict the weird and lonely journey of recovery from cancer.  – Suzy

●  Fearnley’s books always have atmospheric settings with the natural environment often playing a character. This book is no different. Set in Franz Josef on the West Coast, mountains, glaciers, rivers and forests play crucial roles in the narrative. However the story is Libby’s, of her survival and rehabilitation from a cancerous tumour on her leg which makes usual movement difficult. Her husband is blocked from remaining to her by a storm and I really liked the idea of the environment cocooning her in this beautiful sanctuary where she is able to physical and emotional heal on her own terms. It’s a not a book full of dramatics but a quiet story of recovery and gives both the ageing and the ailing more air time than most fiction does. – Rachel

Published 2024
Penguin
280 pages