My Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Bellevue Square is the winner of the 2017 Giller Prize. My mother-in-law gave me a gift card to Chapters when I was in Canada for Christmas, and this was one of the books I picked up.
Jean Mason has a seemingly normal life - she is married, has two children and runs a bookstore in downtown Toronto. But as customers tell Jean they've seen her twin (or think they have actually seen her in places she has not been), Jean soon becomes obsessed with finding her doppelganger, and spends much of her time hanging around Kensington Market & the park of Bellevue Square to see if she can find her. From there, strange things happen.
I really enjoyed Redhill's writing...easy reading and I especially liked getting to know the different characters Jean meets in her 'stake-outs' in the park. I have to say when I got to the end, I was left with a confused 'did I love it or did I hate it?' feeling. The fact that I was having that debate with myself leans me towards a 'strong like'. A part of me wants to go back and read it again right away to see if there are other things I would pick up on now that I've finished it. It's a short enough book, that I think I will.
In the closing Acknowledgements, Redhill mentions this is a part one of a triptych of novels. I will give the next one a read when it comes out.
This is my sixth book read for the 11th Annual Canadian Book Challenge.
I started this one but couldn't get into it so didn't finish.
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