Review: Chorus by Rebecca Kauffman, Narrated by Elisabeth Rodgers

Chorus by Rebecca Kauffman, 

Narrated by Elisabeth Rodgers

Blurb from Goodreads:

For readers of Alice Munro, Elizabeth Strout, and Claire Lombardo, Chorus shepherds seven siblings through two life-altering events—their mother's untimely death, and a shocking teenage pregnancy—that ultimately follow them through their lives as individuals and as a family.

The seven Shaw siblings have long been haunted by two early and profoundly consequential events. Told in turn back and forth over time, from the early twentieth century through the 1950s, each sibling relays their own version of the memories that surround both their mother's mysterious death and the circumstances leading up to and beyond one sister's scandalous teenage pregnancy. As they move into adulthood, the siblings assume various new roles: caretaker to their aging father, addict, enabler, academic, decorated veteran, widow, and mothers and fathers to the next generation.

Entangled in a family knot, each sibling encounters divorce, drama, and death, while haunted by a mother who was never truly there. Through this lens, they all seek not only to understand how her death shaped their family, but also to illuminate the insoluble nature of the many familial experiences we all encounter—the concept of home, the tenacity that is a family’s love, and the unexpected ways through which healing can occur.

Chorus is a hopeful story of family, of loss and recovery, of complicated relationships forged between brothers and sisters as they move through life together, and of the unlikely forces that first drive them away and then ultimately back home.

My Review:
This took awhile to get into but then I really enjoyed it.  Each chapter is a different year and time in the life of this sprawling family and told from a different family member's POV.  Once you connect the dots, I found telling the story this way to be very enjoyable and also incredibly revealing.  Definitely recommend this one!

Chorus comes out TOMORROW on March 1, 2022, and you can purchase HERE!  I also enjoyed the narrator.  You can read my review of The Gunners by this author HERE.

Henry Shaw, second youngest of the Shaw siblings, was enjoying coffee on the deck of a hotel room with his wife, Anne. The early morning sea breeze was pleasant on their faces, which were stiff with sunburn. They ordered room service for breakfast when their daughter, Mimi, woke. Mimi watched her mother closely as she ate. She said, "Your hair is better than usual."