Anna's Book [Paperback]

Ruth Rendell (Author), Barbara Vine (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1994

Discovering that a single entry that might have contained information on an unsolved murder is missing from her grandmother's diary, Ann Eastbrook begins a journey that explores a forbidden past. Reprint.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From the pen of Edgar-winner Ruth Rendell's suspense-writing doppleganger Vine ( A Dark-Adapted Eye ) comes a sixth adroitly fashioned novel of insidious psychological dimensions. Anna, an uncompromising Danish wife stranded by her husband in 1905 London, slyly scribbles tales of her hateful neighbors, boorish servant and absentee spouse while awaiting the birth of a baby. Half a century later, prompted by a poison pen letter, Anna tells her favorite daughter Swanny a half-riddle about her true parentage, but refuses to reveal the whole story, which is entangled with the murder of two women and the disappearance of a toddler. After frantically searching Anna's many diaries for clues to no avail, Swanny publishes them to great acclaim; after Swanny dies, her niece Ann picks up the thread binding three generations and families and follows it to a neatly executed conclusion. Vine skillfully braids the lives of the three women, but it is Anna's voice--puckish, angry, mysterious--that commands attention as fat red herrings are dangled, then tossed. While not as taut and chilling as Vine's--or Rendell's--best books, a mordant eye and textured accounts of turn-of-the-century London lend this novel a sharp edge.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Vine's most recent tale of psychological suspense revolves around a woman's discovery that the published memoirs of her deceased grandmother hid evidence of an elderly woman's murder and the disappearance of a little girl. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/93.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Onyx (October 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451405498
• ISBN-13: 978-0451405494
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #183,835 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A rich, superbly plotted novel, February 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Anna's Book (Paperback)

In most of Barbara Vine's novels, the identity of the killer is known from the beginning. The mystery lies in the nature of the crime and the criminal's mind, which are gradually revealed as the story unravels. ANNA'S BOOK deviates from the rule in that the question of whodunit is not revealed until the very end. For that reason, it may be the most "mysterious" of Vine's tales.

Anna Westerby is a young Danish woman living in London in the early 1900's. She keeps a record of her life in her diary, writing mostly about her beautiful young daughter, Swanny. After Anna's death, the diaries are published to great critical acclaim, but they slowly reveal a chilling pattern. One of the entries is missing, it turns out, an entry that may shed light on the murder of Lizzie Roper, a crime that took place not far from Anna's old house. There are mysteries beyond whodunit, however. Questions arise concerning Swanny's illegitimacy, and the whereabouts of the missing Edith Roper, Lizzie's daughter. The novel alternates between selections from Anna's diary and a narrative by Anna's granddaughter, Ann Eastbrook, who begins to investigate the murky secrets behind her family history.

This is one of Barbara Vine's most complex, intricately plotted mysteries. The solutions are not revealed until the final chapters, and Vine once more dazzles us with stunning ingenuity, giving us some of her most "Why didn't I think of that before?" revelations ever. But above all, this is a wonderful, richly textured novel. Vine writes beautifully; the diary passages are poignant, convincing, and marked by wry humor, and the characters are vivid and real. While ANNA'S BOOK lacks the chilling suspense of some of Vine's earlier novels, it is nonetheless one of her best.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars There's no place like home -- for madness and murder., March 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Anna's Book (Paperback)

Swanny Kjaer has led a charmed life. She is beautiful, wealthy, socially prominent, happily married and, in her fifties, still the favorite child of her strong-willed mother. Her happiness is shattered, though, when she receives an anonymous note telling her that she is not really her mother's daughter. Is it the truth, or simply a cruel prank? Swanny's self-confidence, her sense of identity, her filial devotion and, eventually, her sanity are undermined by this question. Following her mother's death, Swanny takes on the job of translating and publishing her mother's secret diaries in the hope of discovering some clue about her identity. Custody of the diaries devolves upon Swanny's niece, Ann Eastbrook, who renews Swanny's search and quicly learns that the riddle of Swanny's parentage may be bound up with a decades-old mystery involving murder and a missing child.

The inhabitants of "Anna's Book" are bound by custom, duty and language. In fact, the entire novel may be read as an exercise in translation. Anna's diaries are written in her native Danish; Ann learns that nuances of language can be lost when the books are translated into English. Anna herself, fierce, stubborn and not entirely likable, loses some of her meaning when she is "translated" for the sake of her English readers (the reading public seems to revere her as some sort of feisty grande dame, overlooking her less appealing attributes). Even the mystery's denouement depends on a successful act of translation.

Ruth Rendell, writing as Barbara Vine, covers familiar territory here. As in many of her novels, the family is not a site of comfort and support, but a source of conflict, doubt and madness. The source of the mystery, and its resolution are old-fashioned. Rendell is less interested in violence and special effects than in slowly gathering sense of dread. This is not traditional detective fiction, but an exploration of the recesses of the human heart. Rendell successfully parallels two unhappy marriages, showing different classes dealing with unhappiness in very different ways. Even more successful is her use of various types of texts -- Ann must piece together the two mysteries by reading diaries, yellow journalism,trial transcripts, even human faces. And Anna's voice is memorable: intelligent, imperious, hidebound, often callous. (One quibble -- it strains the reader's credibility to think that the British reading public would fail to notice how unpleasant Anna really was.) In contrast, the modern Ann is something of a cipher. She seems to be little more than a vaguely unhappy middle-aged woman with little to think about. The atmosphere is effectively chilling, although the narrative moves too sluggishly at times. Rendell apparently wants us to recognize that the mysteries of daily life do not explode; they grow over time. Given that, the resolution is too pat, a happy coincidence that jars in the context of a fine and psychologically accurate narrative. Still, Rendell's dark and homely magic works here.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars But I didn't cry. I don't., April 3, 2001

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Nonesuch Explorers "sizhao" (Too Close To L.A.) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Anna's Book (Paperback)

I first saw this book in a discount store in the late 90s, and barely scanned it, but liked what I saw. I checked it out of the public library and read it through three times. I didn't even know who Ruth Rendell was. I bought a copy at a local-owned bookstore to add to my permanent collection, and have read it many times. It is completely realistic. I've caught myself thinking that the Anna diaries actually have been published (like Anais Nin's) and that one of these days I'll have to buy a set, and catch Cary Oliver's "Roper" film on Masterpiece Theatre. Diaries, dollhouses, missing children (especially, as Anne points out, missing white, blonde, girl children) and gruesome unsolved crimes, are compelling elements when combined and used wisely. Rendell's use of Danish words and bits of Danish culture also help to give the story a wonderful sense of unity. She seems to do this with all her books, but particularly "Shattered Silk". I am not at all a big fan of fictional mysteries (real-life ones, like the Lindbergh Kidnapping, Little Miss 1565, or Amelia Earhart, are another matter) and don't even care for most Agatha Christie or Anne Perry. "Anna's Book" was so true to life that it crossed the "reality" line for me. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an extremely absorbing, intricate but very readable tale.