The Love that Split the World by Emily Henry : review

It is hard to believe this is a debut novel , according to the author Emily Henry "this book is about windows: standing in one place and looking out beyond it"and there are indeed many "windows" in this book. "Windows" into the past ,the future and into different lives which make the novel quite complex with many subplots: abusive parents, neglectful parents, growing up, romance, feminism, emotional health ,cross-cultural adoption...everything taking place in a wonderful Kentucky summer because the writer "wanted to write about a place where time doesn’t mean quite as much as it does elsewhere".

As to the characters ,I must say that I truly admired Natalie in many ways, her resilience was outstanding.

What I liked most about the book was the somewhat disturbing traditional stories from the First Nations: Iroquois, Natchez,Sioux, Seneca,Caddo,Onondaga-Iroquois and Kwakiutl. What happens in the book is explained in those traditional stories and so is the end of the novel.


I would recommend this book to readers who are looking for something more than a YA romance/paranormal/coming-of-age novel .