The Rain Watcher by Tatiana de Rosnay Book Review Really Into This Blog Goodreads
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The Rain Watcher by Tatiana de Rosnay Book Review

The Rain Watcher by Tatiana de Rosnay Book Review Really Into This Blog GoodreadsThe Rain Watcher by Tatiana de Rosnay Book Review

The lowdown from Goodreads

Publication Date October 23, 2018

The Rain Watcher is a powerful family drama set in Paris as the Malegarde family gathers to celebrate the father’s 70th birthday. Their hidden fears and secrets are slowly unraveled as the City of Light undergoes a stunning natural disaster. Seen through the eyes of charismatic photographer Linden Malegarde, the youngest son, all members of the family will have to fight to keep their unity against tragic circumstances.

In this profound and intense novel of love and redemption, De Rosnay demonstrates all of her writer’s skills both as an incredible storyteller but also as a soul seeker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Rain Watcher by Tatiana de Rosnay Book Review

“I will start with the tree.  Because everything begins, and ends, with the tree.”

The Rain Watcher begins with one of the most beautifully written first lines I have read in some time.  The story of the Malegarde family gathering in France, rain soaked Paris, for an important reunion and celebration, is deeply emotional.  I have not read Sarah’s Key by de Rosnay, but it has been on my TBR shelf for a long time, and I am certainly ready to pick it up now.

The Rain

The Rain in The Rain Watcher is its own character.  I was instantly transported from my couch in sunny California to a gloomy, drenched Paris.  The backdrop of the family reunion is the constant rain and the rising Seine, and de Rosnay depicts it so well it is impossible not to feel like you are in the middle of the storm.  It certainly helped in getting me totally immersed in the Malegarde saga.

Family Drama

The four members of the Malegarde family are gathering for the father’s 70th birthday, and the parent’s 40th wedding anniversary.  Though the story is told through Linden, the son of Paul and Lauren, I felt connected to the entire family.  Linden and his sister, Tilia, are asked to meet their parents in Paris, without their significant others.  Plans are derailed and the family works through some deep seeded issues.  It was extremely touching and emotional to read. While these kind of plots are in no way groundbreaking, The Rain Watcher still felt original.

THE VERDICT

I am Really Into The Rain Watcher by Tatiana de Rosnay.  There were a few problems with the structure of the book – it was maybe not as cohesive as it could have been, and there were some story lines that felt either incomplete or unnecessary, but these issues never got in the way of me absolutely getting lost in the rainy, wet family reunion of The Rain Watcher.

 

Special thanks to Tatiana de Rosnay, St. Martin’s Press & NetGalley for providing our copy in exchange for an honest & fair review.

Let’s connect with books!  We have all of our reviews on Goodreads!

 


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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: TATIANA DE ROSNAY

The Rain Watcher by Tatiana de Rosnay Book Review Author Bio Tatiana de Rosnay
Tatiana de Rosnay

Tatiana de Rosnay was born on September 28th, 1961 in the suburbs of Paris. She is of English, French and Russian descent.  Her father is French scientist Joël de Rosnay, her grandfather was painter Gaëtan de Rosnay.  Tatiana’s paternal great-grandmother was Russian actress Natalia Rachewskïa, director of the Leningrad Pushkin Theatre from 1925 to 1949. Tatiana’s mother is English, Stella Jebb, daughter of diplomat Gladwyn Jebb, and great-great-granddaughter of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the British engineer. Tatiana is also the niece of historian Hugh Thomas.

Tatiana was raised in Paris and then in Boston, when her father taught at MIT in the 70’s. She moved to England in the early 80’s and obtained a Bachelor’s degree in English literature at the University of East Anglia, in Norwich. Returning to Paris in 1984, Tatiana became press attaché for Christie’s and then Paris Editor for Vanity Fair magazine till 1993. Since 1992, Tatiana has published 11 novels in France. Sarah’s Key is her first novel written in her mother tongue, English.

Sarah’s Key was published in 40 countries and has sold over nine million copies worldwide. Kristin Scott-Thomas stars in the movie adaptation by Gilles Paquet-Brenner (2010). Tatiana published A Secret Kept (also written directly in English) in September 2010 in the USA. Called Boomerang in Europe, this book, written in English, is also an international besteller published in 15 countries and movie rights have been sold. She then published The House I loved, (in English, in 2012) which was also sold to numerous countries. Russian Ink(À l’encre russe) was published in 2013, and sold to 10 countries. Manderley Forever, a biography of Daphne du Maurier was published in France in March 2015 and then in Italy, Denmark, Holland and USA.

Tatiana is married and has two children. She lives in Paris with her family.

 

I am a Texan living in California with my husband Mark, my best pup Ziggy, and our two cats Marilyn and Goldie. I love reading, cooking, binge-watching great tv shows and staying up too late talking to my friends.

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