Fragile
Fragile by Lisa Unger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Lisa Unger has written a beautiful novel and I’d rate it higher than 5 stars if I could.
The last few mysteries I’ve read, written by tried and true authors of beloved series, were all disappointing. I had started to wonder if I had read all the good mysteries out there and if there were no more talented writers out there to discover.
Luckily, Lisa Unger’s Fragile was available from the library.
The haunting, beautiful prose lays bare generations of abuse, passed down from father to son. Generations of lies and pain, hurt and shame passed down, creating intricate ties between children, unaware of the tangled web woven by their parents.
The story is summarized elsewhere. This review is to highlight the extraordinary job Unger did with this novel. So much more than a simple who-dunnit, but a true mystery–mysteries, really–slowly revealed as the lives of the characters unfold, disintegrate, and form anew. From the novel: “…the separate passages of their lives has conjoined in ways none of them could have predicted, or even imagined. It has set their unborn children on a collision course with each other.”
And an absolutely lovely ending, which is so hard to achieve in mysteries that go beyond simple procedurals.
Lisa Unger should rank up there with Kate Atkinson and Tana French. Do yourself a favor and read this book.