Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada, January 12
Format: Paperback
Pages: 464
Rating: 4/5 stars
Synopsis (Goodreads):
An enthralling, redemptive novel set in Bangkok in 1972 and Washington, DC, in 2019 about an expatriate child who goes missing, whose family is contacted decades later by a man claiming to be the vanished boy.
Washington, DC, 2019: Laura Preston is a reclusive artist at odds with her older sister Bea as their elegant, formidable mother slowly slides into dementia. When a stranger contacts Laura claiming to be her brother who disappeared forty years earlier when the family lived in Bangkok, Laura ignores Bea’s warnings of a scam and flies to Thailand to see if it can be true. But meeting him in person leads to more questions than answers.
Bangkok, 1972: Genevieve and Robert Preston live in a beautiful house behind a high wall, raising their three children with the help of a cadre of servants. In these exotic surroundings, Genevieve strives to create a semblance of the life they would have had at home in the US—ballet and riding classes for the children, impeccable dinner parties, a meticulously kept home. But in truth, Robert works for American intelligence, Genevieve finds herself drawn into a passionate affair with her husband’s boss, and their serene household is vulnerable to unseen dangers of a rapidly changing world and a country they don’t really understand.
Alternating between past and present as all of the secrets are revealed, What Could Be Saved is an unforgettable novel about a family shattered by loss and betrayal, and the beauty and hope that can exist even in the midst of brokenness.
My Review:
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The book follows a family that went to Bangkok when the father moved there for work in the late 1960s, and the mystery surrounding their time there.
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The book started out kinda slow and I wasn’t sure if I would like it, but then about 75 pages in I was hooked and I could not put it down! I enjoyed the back and forth between the past and present, and how bits of the mystery were slowly revealed.
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The family itself was quite interesting. There was a lot of tension amongst the family and all it’s members, not only between the parents but between the siblings too. I also really liked the setting of the book, as I haven’t read many books set in Bangkok! Something to keep in mind is that it’s from the perspective of the US going into Asia and stopping the spread of communism, so there is a bit of American superiority that comes across from some of the characters. Overall though I was engrossed in the story!
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Cw: substance abuse (drugs and alcohol), sexual assault, sexual content, infidelity, a missing child.
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