Book Review: The New Mrs Clifton
Waiting for the train to London Waterloo, I ventured into the Thames Ditton Station waiting room so as to avoid the icy wind whipping at my face and warm my frozen hands.
As the colour started to return to my blue lips, I eyes fell upon the Thames Ditton Station Book Swap shelf.
I was in need of a good book and I sought something to rejuvenate and revive my passion for reading. After scanning the blurbs and flicking through timeworn pages, I felt I had found the one.
It was called The New Mrs Clifton, a Sunday Times bestseller that was set in post-WW2 London. The plot: a British intelligence officer returning from Berlin with a mysterious German woman, whom he had secretly married during the war. The story, the blurb revealed, explores the reactions of his sisters and devastated fiancé, as they are expected to welcome this 'enemy' from abroad into their home.
I thought it looked like a good read, covering many of the themes that I usually enjoy in a book- war, romance, mystery... However, I could not have anticipated the depth of this novel, and the skill in which the author, Elizabeth Buchan, left the reader in the dark and guessing until the very last moment. It is the sort of book that leaves you thinking long after you have closed its cover, and has you racing back through the pages to confirm you haven't jumped to premature conclusions.
Although set in post-war London, the reader is taken much further afield as the past is revealed through the memories of characters and flashbacks. The book is centered around the couple in question- Intelligence Officer Gus Clifton, and Krista, the mysterious German wife. Both were in Berlin during the war, and the reader is aware that this is how they met, but the circumstances of this relationship are kept in the dark right up until the end. What makes the relationship particularly unique, is that it is not the typical whirlwind, spur of the moment romance that one might imagine during wartime. In fact, there is no evidence that the two are even in love at all and the marriage seems more of a deal or arrangement than display of love.
Krista is a complex character, bearing the wounds of war in a different way from her male counterparts, but carrying scars just as deep, etched on her body, mind and memories. Gus comes across as a kind and humane soul, yet holds a dark secret that follows him around like a shadow and binds him to Krista with a ferocious commitment that leaves the characters speculating and reader desperately trying to patch together the truth.
One of the things I enjoyed most about the novel was how it captured so many of the elements of war through the various characters and the impact that wartime had had on their lives. Gus- an Intelligence Officer in Berlin, Krista- a German citizen who soon became victim to her country's own defeat, Gus's sisters- each effected by the war in very different ways, and dealing with its ashes with clumsy uncertainty as they cross over new terrain. Gus's once fiancé, her injured brother...the list goes on as the characters are caught in a web of love, angst, anger, confusion, hurt and pain, all bearing scars, some of which are more noticeable than others.
If you want a book that makes you think and forces you to face the many realities and horrors of war with unflinching veracity, I can't recommend The New Mrs Clifton enough. It holds you with unnerving grip from beginning to end and Elizabeth Buchan has created each character for a purpose, each with their own memories, relevance and story. I didn't cry, but my eyes could not be torn from the page as the depth and complexity of each individual was exposed in merciless entirety.
Whoever thought to put it in the Thames Ditton Station Book Swap, thank you- I'll be placing it back on the shelf for another passing traveller to enjoy.
