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The String Games

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When four-year-old Josh is abducted and murdered during a family holiday in France, Nim, aged ten, becomes an only child. To cope with the tragedy, Nim reinvents herself but continues to carry a burden of unresolved grief. As an adult she returns to France determined to find out more about the circumstances of Josh’s death. How will she deal with this new information and what are the implications for her future?

324 pages, Paperback

Published May 28, 2019

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About the author

Gail Aldwin

11 books115 followers
Novelist, poet and scriptwriter, Gail Aldwin has been writing for over a decade. Her first two coming-of-age novels where shortlisted in the Dorchester Literary Festival Writing Prize 2020 and 2022. Gail was awarded a creative writing PhD in 2018 and still laughs whenever she’s called Doctor Gail. She has appeared at Bridport Literary Festival, Stockholm Writers Festival and the Mani Lit Fest in Greece. Gail’s dual timeline mystery will be published by Bloodhound Books in July 2023. When at home, Gail writes by a window overlooking water meadows in Dorset.

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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
Profile Image for Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader.
2,294 reviews31.4k followers
June 7, 2019
The String Games is an exciting and original mystery/suspense read, and I’m going to do my best to avoid spoilers because this one is too much fun!

Nim and her brother, Josh, are ten and four when they travel with their family to France on holiday. Josh is kidnapped and murdered, and now Nim is an only child.

Understandably, Nim carries a heavy burden of grief for her childhood and long into adulthood. She returns to France to learn more about what happened to her brother.

But now she has to grapple with how to handle what she learns.

This book has the most creative title with multiples meanings. I think the author did an amazing job with her portrayal of Nim’s grief. It was done sensitively and honestly.

Nim has a long road to travel through grief and loss, and it’s uniquely her own. Her story is relatable and well-written. The author showed keen insight into the family dynamic after a loss such as this. I’m so grateful for my time spent holding this moving and poignant book.

I received a complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

My reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com
Profile Image for Linda Hill.
1,345 reviews47 followers
May 20, 2019
A holiday in France will change Nim forever.

I have to admit, The String Games was not the book I was expecting to read. I had anticipated a crime thriller but instead I found a comprehensive exploration of the manner in which one young woman has to come to terms with her past in order to live her future. Identity is key here and Gail Aldwin paints an absorbing picture of Nim’s life.

What a perfectly entitled book The String Games is. Nim plays literal games with coloured string, making shapes and patterns, but more importantly, string games are played metaphorically through the characters who have tangled and untidy lives and who experience the knotted feelings of grief, guilt and love in their very beings. There are tangled sexual feelings as Nim begins to experience an awakening with Maxime and Jez, and the complexity of relationship between her parents and Dee adds to the tension and the reality of the book. As Nim transforms herself into another identity and tries to untangle to web of the past, the title The String Games gains even more relevance.

In keeping with that title, Nim’s personality as a child, a teenager and then as a woman cannot be disentangled from the strings of her past, making The String Games an intense portrait of her life as well as an interesting story. I found Nim’s narrative voice strong and clear – which meant I really didn’t like her much in her teenage years, even though I understood her completely.

Gail Aldwin has an eye for the smallest detail that brings her prose alive so that the reader can picture her settings very clearly. More importantly, however, is her ability to contrast the mundane aspects of life with dramatic events so that there is even greater impact. The change of tense from past to present in the third part of the novel, for example, feels absolutely right for the stage Nim, or Imogen, has reached in her life. I thought the string illustrations running through the book added to this feeling of careful detail and complexity.

The String Games may not have been the book I thought I was going to read, but I found it a story with an astute and lucid understanding of what it means to be a female growing up in a world of adversity and loss. Although Nim’s experience is unique to her, so much of what she encounters can be recognised and understood by Gail Aldwin’s readers, making The String Games a relatable and engaging story. It’s an interesting book to read.
Profile Image for Jaffareadstoo.
2,691 reviews
May 21, 2019
It's every parents' worst nightmare to have a child disappear, I can well recall that heart stopping, gut-wrenching feeling when my daughter, then aged six, went missing for about half an hour and the sheer relief when she was found safe and well.

The String Games reminds us of that feeling but it also cleverly focuses on the effects on the sibling in a missing child case, people who are, so often, overlooked, as so much emphasis is concentrated on the distress of the parents. Nim is only ten years old when her four year old brother, Josh, goes missing on a family holiday in France, and, whilst the impact of this devastating event on the parents is never underestimated, it is Nim's reaction to her brother's disappearance which becomes paramount to the story.

I found The String Games to be a very insightful family drama, which never over-sensationalises what has happened, but which looks introspectively into how much Nim suffered and of the grief and sense of loss that she carried with her and her need to have answers to so many unresolved issues. In a way The String Games is a rather poignant coming of age story as we witness Nim's constant search for resolution.

The author writes really well and the attention to detail and the authentic feel to the narrative make this a compelling and thought provoking read.
Profile Image for Anne.
1,948 reviews
May 22, 2019
I’ve noticed, while reading some background information, that the author describes her book as a psychological drama: indeed it is, but it’s also an authentic and moving coming of age story, a quite wonderful portrayal of the impact of grief, loss and guilt, and an immensely engaging and well-told story.

Although written in the third person, the first part of the book captures quite perfectly the voice and thoughts of ten year old Nim, in Rodez in France for a caravan holiday with her mother and younger brother Josh, where they will be joined by Dee and her daughter Ella. The narrative is very skilfully handled, capturing perfectly her innocence and naivety, her personal observations on everything she encounters – and there’s a deliberate innocence to the writing too, its content reflected in every carefully chosen word and expression.

There’s a sure emotional touch too – the kind of acute embarrassment and awkwardness only felt by a young girl, the delight in simple pleasures like ice cream or the forbidden scooter, the racing pulse of attraction to the exotic Maxime with his links to “the bad boys”. The anguish at Josh’s disappearance is handled quite exceptionally – through the eyes of Nim, with her limited understanding, the significant adults in her life pursuing their own agendas as she crumples beneath the guilt of her involvement.

Another of the other strengths of that first part of the story is its vivid sense of place – Le Camping with its small shop and playground, the countryside leading to the river and the beach – and the way the author infuses it with heat and a sense of claustrophobia that makes it a perfect backdrop for the story that unfolds.

While that first section is particularly well done – and perhaps my favourite part of the book – the story and its well-drawn characters then move on.

We next see Nim in her teens, five years later – that contrast between vulnerability and teenage bolshiness, beginning to establish her identity, on the verge of adulthood, choosing (sometimes unsuitable) friends and losing others, the shadow of Josh’s loss pushed into the background but sometimes exploding into the forefront. And then, it’s five years later again – and Nim (her identity now fixed as Imogen) is a rather solitary figure, still struggling to move beyond the childhood trauma, returning to Rodez, retracing her steps and revisiting the earlier events in the hope of being able to move forward.

The book’s whole is tightly plotted, the threads knotted like the string game of the title. There’s a mystery here, intriguing and only fully resolved and explained at the book’s end: but the novel’s drive is more about Nim’s personal journey, her changing relationships with others as she tries to escape the guilt of her youth, and I found that journey quite fascinating. It’s ultimately a story of hope and forgiveness, fresh starts and new beginnings: it’s quite beautifully written, and I enjoyed it very much.
Profile Image for Joanne.
1,291 reviews27 followers
May 1, 2019
Imogen, always known as Nim, is on holiday in France with her mum and brother and her mum’s very close friend Dee and her daughter Ella, when Josh goes missing. The book is split into different sections looking first at what happened on that holiday, next at Nim as a teenager and then as a young woman struggling to come to terms with what happened in the past.

It was, of course, upsetting to read about when Josh disappeared. It is surely every parent’s worst nightmare and I can only imagine how I would feel if it happened to me. Nim feels that it is her fault and I think that the author captured the child’s voice beautifully in this part of the book. Nim’s feelings of guilt and confusion at what had happened was all too clear. I have to admit that I didn’t like Nim as a teenager at first and I think again that this is because the author had captured those self-centred teenage thoughts perfectly. It was frustrating to read about how Nim seemed to be squandering opportunities to do well at school and got in with the wrong crowd. But then, what teenager doesn’t want to fit in and be considered normal? It seemed like it was hard for her to know who to trust. And then when we meet Nim, now going by the name of Imogen again, in her early twenties, we see a young woman profoundly affected by the events of the past, needing to make sense of it to move on. It was clear just how much the loss of her brother was affecting her – and her parents – as time was passing.

Although this is a sad story about loss and grief and recriminations, it is also an optimistic book showing that even after the most terrible of events, there can be hope for the future. The author writes sensitively about the emotions of a family going through the darkest of times. This is a portrait of a woman finally being able to reconcile herself to the legacy of the past and to permit herself to accept that she was not to blame. The String Games is a thoughtful and thought-provoking read.
March 18, 2019
The String Games might be a debut novel, but Gail Aldwin is by no means a debut author, having honed her skills over many years as a successful poet and writer of short fiction. An exploration of grief, and of the impact on family life of the loss of a young child, this novel is also a coming of age story told from the point of view of Nim - first as a child, then as a teenager and lastly as a young woman. And ultimately this is a story of hope and positivity. For me, the voice of the child Nim is particularly well done, the use of language throughout is impeccable, the novel is well written, and the plot tightly woven. I was lucky enough to read an advance copy but you should certainly look out for The String Games when it is published at the end of May. Nim is just one of those characters who will stick in your mind long after you have finished reading.
Profile Image for Jen.
83 reviews10 followers
May 23, 2019
The String Games begins with an intriguing prologue of Nim in the future having an idea and rushing to her computer. Then goes back into the past to tell the story. The style draws you in and the description of the French setting makes you feel like you’re right there. I loved this book straight away, it’s one of those books that you can tell from the start it’s going to be something special. It’s tells the story of what happed to Nim’s brother Josh and how it affected her life as she got older.

When Josh disappears, it’s awful and the way it’s written you hold onto hope with the family that he will be found. Everyone deals with it differently and the novel is about how they cope and how it effects their lives and especially Nim as she gets older. I can’t imagine what it might be like to lose a child or sibling but this novel gave me an idea.

When Nim went back to France to come to terms with it all as an adult it did feel nostalgic, like going back to revisit places from you’re own childhood. It was good to revisit the place and people she met.

It’s always difficult to write a review for a book this good, I struggle to put into words how good it is: I was riveted from the start and managed to finish the novel in a few days. I enjoyed the story. The characters are life like and you quickly get to like them and get drawn into their world. Although a very sad novel filled with grief, it was a really interesting and engaging read
Profile Image for Jim Bates.
Author 12 books12 followers
August 26, 2019
The loss of a child is every family's nightmare. The String Games is tough subject matter handled with sensitivity and grace by an extremely talented writer. Told through the eyes of Josh's older sister, Nim (later Imogen), the author skillfully chooses her words and then makes each and every one of them count. The writing is taut, the story well crafted, and the three sections representing three stages in the life of Nim/Imogen do a perfect job of letting the reader experience firsthand the effects of the tragedy. I was drawn into The String Games from page one and didn't want to put it down. At the end, I held the book in my hands knowing I'd just experienced something unique, one of the best novels I'd read in ages. Highly recommended.
Profile Image for Ninette Hartley.
Author 2 books1 follower
July 8, 2019
I began this book late on Saturday and then spent all of Sunday reading it. I could not put it down. The loss of a child, in the worst of circumstances, and the effect this has on the family unit, Gail portrays beautifully. We see from the point of view of the young Nim, who not only loses her sibling, but is having to contend with divorce, her mother's confused sexuality and her own coming of age. We grow with her through the teenage angst and then meet the mature young woman who finds a way to come to terms with her anxiety and feelings of guilt. Thankfully, there's a happy ending.
Profile Image for Paula R. C. Readman.
Author 26 books49 followers
February 29, 2020
Very interesting book told from a young girl’s point of view. The characters are well drawn. The language is fitting for a young person which allows you to step into their shoes. Their thought and motivations make them seem real which allows you to get carried along with the story.
The pace of the story unfolds steadily which allows you to get to know the characters involved. The String Game is a unique story. Well done, Gail.
Profile Image for Sarah Tinsley.
Author 5 books8 followers
March 30, 2021
Right from the off I was drawn into this story of complex family relationships and tragedy. It's all done with a very light touch, and I was taken back to childhood times with her sensitive framing of the narrative through the eyes of a young girl who grows throughout the book. Well worth a read.

I interviewed the author to find out how she plotted it and created such great settings. You can read it here: https://sarahtinsley.com/2020/11/29/s...
Profile Image for Diane.
804 reviews15 followers
September 5, 2019
This book is written through the eyes of Nim/Imogen. Nim goes on holiday to France with her Mum and little brother Josh. Unfortunately while there Josh goes missing and is never found. The story leads you through Nim’s life and how she copes with this awful tragedy. You watch Nim grow and develop into a strong independent young woman. A well written moving story.
Profile Image for K.
30 reviews
May 29, 2020
A beautiful, moving and engrossing novel.
3 reviews
March 26, 2022
A story that shows you how to learn from tragedy. A great book for those interested in unpacking trauma, it helped me move past memories that were holding me back. Just a shame my favourite character doen't get enough lines.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews

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