The Endless Forest
By Sara Donati
Well, the Bonner journey is officially over in terms of the physical books, but the story is something that will live with me for a long time.
Over the last seven-or-so years, I have followed Nathaniel and Elizabeth Bonner from Into the Wilderness to Lake in the Clouds, Dawn on a Distant Shore, Fire Along the Sky, Queen of Swords and, finally, The Endless Forest.
When I started reading the final book, I was totally confused. There seemed to be so many new characters and the story had skipped over a fair few years. Even halfway through I was still figuring it out and thought maybe I should go back and flick through the previous books. But, I persevered, and the story grew and changed and took on a life of its own.
Much like the rest of the books, The Endless Forest had a steady, balanced pace to it, something that was frustrating at first but, once you come to accept that that is the nature of the Bonner journey – the books are a story of their whole lives, not just a small part of it – you begin to enjoy it and always want to know what happens next and where everyone ends up.
Without giving anything away, the story ended just the way it should, and left the door open for the lives of the Bonner children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren to continue in the readers’ minds for years to come.
It’s like that feeling you get when you’re out of high school for a few years and you wonder what people you went to school with are up to these days. I almost want to look up Daniel, Lily, Gabriel and Birdie on Facebook. Lol. They feel like old friends and I’m certainly going to miss them.
Now reading: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows.
