If you are looking for an interesting book for Saturday night, I have a proposal for you. Delfina Chmielecka's literary debut is a novel full of intrigues, love themes and twists. In times of epidemics, anything is possible.
Dark secrets of the past
Liv Colloney is a struggling woman. Her last relationship with Max ended in disappointment. Escaping traumatic experiences, the girl devotes herself to searching for her Scottish roots. While in the fishing village of Portknockie, she meets Patrick, who decides to help her. Together, they determine that Liv’s parents are buried in Lake Forest. In these neighborhoods, however, no one wants to talk about the Colloney family. The residents’ memories of Liv’s parents are frightening. Meanwhile, the protagonist discovers that she has (at least one) supernatural power – in moments of anger, when anger pulsates in her veins, the interlocutor (who is the cause of disappointment) begins to suffocate. Liv begins to understand why the people of Lake Forest are afraid. When the girl returns to Gdynia, an epidemic (similar to the coronavirus) is already developing there.
On the border of the worlds
The book is divided into three parts. In the first one, we get to know Liv and accompany her on long journeys. Chmielecka also decided to use a flashback, thanks to which we get to know the heroine’s past better. In the second part we read about the powerful Lilain family, whose member is the title Excalibur (yes, it is the name of the male hero!). The fate of the man and Liv connect. A woman quickly becomes the source of a conflict, the end of which will affect all of humanity. The third part is an expansion of the ending of the threads from the first and second parts. The story of the girl may be interesting for readers because the author decided to tell about the Polish reality. The heroine lives in Gdańsk, where she studies medicine. She sets off on a journey only when reality turns out to be too depressing. I liked the story’s characters’ creative superpowers the most. The reader is not sure for a long time what skills the main character has. On the one hand, she behaves like an ordinary mortal, but on the other – she is aware of her uniqueness. INExcalibur. The heritage of mankind has many descriptions, which, however, do not tire the reader. The described spaces are beautiful and… unreal.
Something for the end
Novae Res, a publishing house from Gdynia, positively surprised me. Excalibur book cover . The heritage of humanity is mysterious, it suggests to a potential reader the heterogeneity of the worlds around us. The author suggestively asks two questions: is SHE cursed or special, and is HE special or like everyone else? Unfortunately, there is no information about the author of the novel, which makes it anonymous for us. Perhaps in the future we will return to the journeys of our literary heroes, but we will probably not connect them with the name of the debutant.
