Finding Nina by Sue Barnard

Val Penny ♦ June 6, 2019 ♦ Leave a comment

I recently treated myself to a pile of books by a group of my favourite authors amongst those books was the most recent novel by Sue Barnard, Finding Nina.

Finding Nina is a relatively short book, but that is not a critism. The novel deals with the life of a woman, given up for adoption and explores the emotions of her birth mother, her adotive mother and her own emotions as she matures. I find the raw and realistic way the emotions in this novel are discussed. The author really gets into the heads of the different characters.

I found the book extremely interesting. So much so that I read it in one sitting. I have already recommended it to several bookish friends and I do so again now.

Sue Barnard is a British novelist, editor and award-winning poet. She was born in North Wales but has spent most of her life in and around Manchester. After graduating from Durham University, where she studied French and Italian, Sue got married then had a variety of office jobs before becoming a full-time parent. If she had her way, the phrase “non-working mother” would be banned from the English language. Sue has a mind which is sufficiently warped as to be capable of compiling questions for BBC Radio 4’s fiendishly difficult “Round Britain Quiz”. This once caused one of her sons to describe her as “professionally weird.” The label has stuck. In addition to working as an editor for Crooked Cat Publishing, Sue is the author of four novels: The Ghostly Father, Nice Girls Don’t, The Unkindest Cut of All and Never on Saturday. She is also very interested in Family History. Her own background is far stranger than any work of fiction; she’d write a book about it if she thought anybody would believe her. Sue lives in Cheshire, UK, with her extremely patient husband and a large collection of unfinished scribblings.

Finding Nina is an original novel, published by Crooked Cat Books, where the characters are divinely shared and explored with the reader.

Val Penny