Metro Reco: The Gravedigger's Daughter

Before I get seriously into my 1001 Books challenge, I just had to allow myself couple more hot new reads, one being Joyce Carol Oates latest, The Gravedigger's Daughter.

The novel’s heroine, Rebecca, was born on the boat on the way to her America when her family fled Nazi Germany. Though a former schoolteacher, Rebecca’s father is forced to accept the only work he can get: the job of gravedigger and cemetery caretaker. Her family an object of scorn and ridicule in their small community, Rebecca suffers the consequences of her parents’ broken dreams.

Escaping her miserable childhood through marriage, Rebecca learns a new form of suffering at the hands of an abusive alcoholic husband. Determined to provide a better life for their son, the scrappy and resilient woman flees her husband and reinvents herself.

Though a little on the long side, with well fleshed-out characters, and a gripping plot, this is a perfect book to curl up with at the cottage this summer.