Title: Tin Man by Sarah Winman
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Genre: Historical, Literary Fiction
Length: 224 pages
Book Rating: B
Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Penguin’s First to Read Program
Summary:
From internationally bestselling author Sarah Winman comes an unforgettable and heartbreaking novel celebrating love in all its forms, and the little moments that make up the life of one man.
This is almost a love story. But it’s not as simple as that.
Ellis and Michael are twelve-year-old boys when they first become friends, and for a long time it is just the two of them, cycling the streets of Oxford, teaching themselves how to swim, discovering poetry, and dodging the fists of overbearing fathers. And then one day this closest of friendships grows into something more.
But then we fast-forward a decade or so, to find that Ellis is married to Annie, and Michael is nowhere in sight. Which leads to the question: What happened in the years between?
With beautiful prose and characters that are so real they jump off the page, Tin Man is a love letter to human kindness and friendship, and to loss and living.
Review:
Spanning several decades from the 1960s to the mid 1990s, Tin Man by Sarah Winman is a bittersweet novel of friendship and love.
The first part of this engaging, yet short novel, is from Ellis Judd’s point of view. Ellis is still mourning the loss of his beloved wife Annie whom he deeply loved. His mother’s death when he was a teen altered his life’s path when his domineering and abusive father stifled Ellis’s artistic endeavors. The only bright spot in his life until Ellis met Annie is his close friendship with Michael Wright. If the young men had grown up during a more enlightened time period, would their friendship have gone down a different road?
The second part of the novel is from Michael’s perspective and it is much more emotionally compelling. Michael is a sensitive man who drifted away from Ellis after his marriage to Annie. He moved to London for his writing career where he never quite found anyone who meant as much to him as Ellis. His life takes somewhat tragic turn as he nurses a former lover through a fatal illness. Afterwards, Michael travels to the French countryside where he slowly heals and after his return to London, he reconnects with Annie and Ellis.
Tin Man by Sarah Winman is a beautifully written novel that is deeply affecting. Michael’s part of the story is much more meaningful and heartrending than Ellis’s since it takes readers through the harrowing early years of a disease that for far too long was a death sentence. Ellis is a sympathetic protagonist and it is quite gratifying to watch him grow and make some much needed changes to his life. An incredibly heartfelt yet poignant story that packs a powerful emotional punch.
