“I do remember an apothecary—“ Romeo 5.1.37
From a “recommended books” list, someplace. Might’ve been the The New Yorker, but I’m unsure of provenance of the recommendation itself.
“The life of an apothecary is a strange, solitary one.” Page 37.
The narrative bounces between three narrators, each with an agenda and each with a different time-stream, making it historical fiction, in a way. Set in London, portions of which, I recall.
Looks like a first book, and I hope, not the last, from an up and coming author. There was a bit of “trite” to some of the tale, love, longing, forgiveness, and the parallel worlds of the past and the present, they collide, almost a little heavy-handed with symbolism, turning it into a trite trope, but there is that idea that the narratives themselves pull the tale forward.
The London I remember.
Strict, historical fiction is one thing, add a dram of magical realism, and the haunting notion of past lives resurrected?
Build a concurrent backstory with infidelity onto it? At least that was handled deftly — and realistically.