Review: The Rain Watcher (by Tatiana de Rosnay)

 My Rating: 4 stars

Set against the backdrop of a historic flood in Paris, The Rain Watcher is an atmospheric tale about the Malegarde family, told primarily from the perspective of the youngest son Linden, who is a world-renowned photographer.  As he and his family – older sister Tilia, his parents Lauren and Paul – reunite to celebrate his parents wedding anniversary as well as his father’s 70^th birthday, the atmosphere around them is grim, with ceaseless rain that greets each family member upon their arrival.  As the family prepares for their gathering, a crisis slowly unfolds around them in the form of rising floodwaters that threaten to submerge the city.  When tragedy befalls the family and Paul ends up in the hospital, Linden embarks on a retrospective journey that, over the course of the story, gives us insight into not only his own past but also that of the various members of his family.

With this well-written family saga, author Tatiana de Rosnay did an incredible job presenting an emotional story that was at the same time heartbreaking yet also uplifting.   This is very much a story about love and family relationships, but also about redemption, identity, and also the power of uniting together as a family in the face of crisis.  As a character-driven story, this was more of a slow-burn narrative that took awhile to get into, but it’s one that pays off in the end with a story that was absolutely well-told.  The family at the center of the story was so well-depicted, with flaws and dysfunctions that many of us could relate to – this was a family that grew on me, to the point that at the end, I didn’t want to let them go.  Aside from the Malegarde family though, another important character in the story was the rain itself, which factored into the narrative in various places, serving as a constant throughout the story.  In terms of the writing, the prose was wonderfully rendered, with sparse dialogue and long descriptive paragraphs that made the surrounding environment – the rain, the flood and its effects, etc. – truly come alive.

This was truly an introspective novel, one that I enjoyed for both the story and the characters as well as the atmospheric mood it invoked – sad and somber yet not entirely devoid of hope.  I know this is the same author who wrote Sarah’s Key, which is a book I’ve had on my “to-read” list for quite some time already – I look forward to reading that one even more now. 

Received ARC from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley