Cover Image: The Other Half of Augusta Hope

The Other Half of Augusta Hope

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Augusta Hope loves words and devours dictionaries. She is not your average child. She's also a twin. Julia, the other half to their 'Justa', is much easier for their parents to understand. Julia is happy where she is. Augusta dreams of being anywhere else.

Along with her words, Augusta becomes obsessed with the country Burundi. She's picked it for an obsession from its name alone, and determines to learn as much about it as possible over the years. Life carries on. She is extraordinary even when everything around her is ordinary.

Then Parfait's point of view is introduced. He actually lives in Burundi. He has a large loving family, but a life that quickly becomes tragic in a country torn apart by violence and politics. He cares for his siblings as best he can, but always dreams of a better future - always dreams of what a life in Spain might be like.

At first having both points of views is a little confusing - where is this going, you might think? What are we supposed to think of Augusta's 'mundane' difficulties, such as who gets to date neighbour Diego, when in Burundi Parfait is struggling to stay alive? But I suppose it shows that we judge our lives by our own difficulties, not other people's. It's still hard for Augusta being the 'weird' one, even if it's harder still for Parfait having to leave everything he loves behind.

It's foreshadowed from the beginning that Augusta will lose her twin, and that Parfait will face real tragedy too. I must admit I kept turning the pages to find out what would happen. It hit me hard anyway, regardless of knowing. Tears were shed.

Once Parfair and Augusta have experienced the worst that life can throw at them, it seems a matter of time until their paths will cross. Waiting for this is another kind of tension, taut with anticipation.

In the beginning portion of the novel, I wondered if it would be a slow read for me. It took a little while to care about Augusta's world. She's fascinating but also thoughtless sometimes in how she deals with her family. But I don't know what happened. The story got its hooks into me, I suppose, and I read it across one evening. It helps that the writing is very good. Some of it even reads like poetry (this could irritate some, in the wrong mood - it's quite stylised at times - but in this context I enjoyed it).

There were times I wanted more Parfait and less Augusta, but that's a minor complaint in the big scheme of things. It's an interesting book - both funny and sad, somehow small-town focused and international, evocative and even educational (Augusta knows bigger words than me). I'm glad I read it.

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A lyrical, poetic story of loss and love, in that order

The 'other half' of Augusta Pope's childhood is her twin, Julia. The two girls are as different as twins could be. Julia is exactly the child her parents wanted: blonde, biddable, pretty and home-loving. Augusta isn't. Her parents can't understand this clever, feisty daughter whose favourite book is the dictionary, wants to right every wrong and befriends their neighbour's disabled son, whom other people shun. Augusta longs to escape the constraints of her conventional family. Studying an atlas, she sees the name Burundi, wonders what it would be like to live there and decides to find out about the country, its history and the people who live there.

Parfait is the same age as Augusta, but lives in a completely different world: war-torn Burundi. Having seen many of his family killed in the bloody civil war, he decides to leave, aged 14, taking his younger brother with him.

Augusta escapes the constraints of her conventional, rather narrow-minded family to go to university, where she shines. Parfait also escapes. To say more would give away the plot of this memorable and beautifully-written story of two intelligent, courageous people who both resent the restrictions of the life they were born into. A must-read.

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This is a beautifully written book. I felt emotionally connected to all the characters involved who were depicted with empathy and warmth. Augusta Hope's connection with her twin is profound and yet she feels she does not fit in in her home town with her parents and sister. She is a little odd in the way Eleanor Elephant is.

In the novel, she explores who she is and what home means to her and what the meaning of love is. I really enjoyed it! Strongly recommended.

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Augusta Hope is to me is what I imagine Eleanor Oliphant was to everyone else. Quite possibly the most beautiful book I’ve read in a very long time, this is a story of love, grief and home. Highly recommend to everyone as a must read this summer!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperFiction for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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I received an ARC of this book via net galley i exchange for an honest review - so here goes.

At first I couldn't decide about this book, It appears to have little or no narrative and little in the way of character development that made me feel involved with them. However it wasn't a book that I thought I couldn't read. There was a style that made it easy to read. As I progressed however, the author did begin to create a narrative that was full of emotion. There was love, loss and longing within the story line. I do think it will stay in my memory but it won't be one of my all time favourites

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She is quirky, she lives in a small town in England, she feels she doesn’t fit in, she has a twin called Julia, she is oppositional, she loves facts, she is obsessed with words - she is Augusta Hope. And I loved her!!!

2 worlds are brought together in this powerful novel of wanting something more than what you have. Both Augusta and Parfait want a better life and both have their sights on Spain.

The novel is engrossing and thought provoking with vivid, relatable characters. It’s the perfect read for fans of Eleanor Oliphant. I predict this book will be HUGE!!!

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I spent a lot of time reading this, unsure whether I was actually enjoying it or not! Once the connection starts to show it's relevance it becomes much more enjoyable and is a decent book with some emotion in it.

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I read this through NetGalley - thank you to them. This is my impartial review.

I enjoyed this book so much. The two thread narrative works really well, with quite distinct voices. I loved Augusta - her fierce intelligence; her love for her sister, Julia; her need to flee suburbia - she felt like a real person, making mistakes, learning from life - really well captured.

Both narratives contain tragedy, and both protagonists learn from those tragedies, even though it's hard. The resilience of the human spirit, the strength we get from others, all told so well.

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How do I explain how great this book without giving anything away!

Julia and Augusta are the Hope twins - bought up in an ordinary place by ordinary parents who are of their time.
Augusta is extraordinary, clever, eager to learn and outspoken. She can be like this because she has a home - her twin sister.
The threads of this book weave in and out of time, place and experience. Its about family of whatever type and learning from others.

Can highly recommend

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This was a very different book and one that's quite hard to describe. I'm still not sure if I particularly liked it or not... but it was certainly very different and one that I'll remember.

There are two main characters, Augusta who lives in England and Parfait who lives in Burundi in Africa initially, but escapes to Spain by boat. Augusta is a twin, but is very different from her sister Julia who is the 'normal' twin. Augusta is a bit odd in her way of thinking and the way she looks at words all the time. Their parents are very straight and stuck in their ways, and her Father is definitely a bit odd, which is probably where Augusta gets it from. Augusta has also always had a fascination with Burundi since fixating on the word whilst young.

Parfait was born in Burundi, but had a very hard life to start with, with all the unrest in their country. His Mother died, one of this brothers died, his Father was killed and his sisters abused and they then disappeared. So he decides to escape to Spain with his youngest brother, Zion, ending up washed up on a beach, like so many escaping refugees.

The story follows both Augusta and Parfait's lives, with little chapters on each, but mostly Augusta, and you wonder where it's all going really, until it starts to become a bit clearer in that they are both working their way towards each other over the years.

For me it was a bit of a struggle as I wasn't entirely sure where the story was going, and it felt quite disjointed at times, but it was also one of those books where I had to keep reading to see where it all ended up. There was a small incident of an animal dying too, right at the very end, which I wasn't happy about so put a bit of a damper on the end of the story for me. A very unusual, quite sad feeling, book.

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The Other Half of Augusta Hope is about twins Augusta and Julia who lives in a little town in England. Augusta is the odd twin. She reminded me a bit of Eleanor Oliphant. She is an odd child and loves words. Her favourite book is the dictionary. She finds hard to fit in life. Her sister Julia is the ‘normal’ child and is always there for her sister. The story continues telling us of the summers they spend travelling with their parents. They share everything together until she meets Diego and both girls drift apart and then tragedy strikes. And Augusta is never the same again
The story has an alternate one. The story of Parfait, who lives in the town called Burundi in Africa. He has hopes and dreams, to make a better life for himself and his family ad escape the Civil war. He decides to buy a boat with his brother Zion they sail away to Spain.
This is a beautifully emotionally written novel by Joanna Glen. It is one of them thought provoking books that will keep you thinking about long after you read it. 3.5 half stars from me.

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The other half of Augusta Hope is a beautifully and heartfelt written book, that will make readers laugh and cry in equal amounts.

Augusta Hope is a different kind of heroine than most. Her love of words is magical and you find yourself falling in love with the authors words as the book goes along.

There are moments in the book where I was smiling and then crying the next minute. A certain part of the book had me in floods of tears!
It's an excellent debut by Joanna Glen. I recommend this book if you like novels such as Eleanor Oliphant, or The wisdom of Sally red shoes, just make sure you have tissues at hand!
I will be looking out for the next book by Joanna Glen and will be recommending 'Augusta Hope' to my friends and family.

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There were parts of this story I loved and parts that absolutely draaaaaggggged. There were some fabulous characters (Parfait’s siblings) and others that were just glossed over, even though they contributed to the atmosphere (the Spanish friends)...
take one pair of twins with hopes and dreams, one boy to lust over, a boy who wants a better life out of Africa and some parents who have a favourite twin. Mix them all together and you have this interesting story. It could have been amazing - themes of first love, loss, determination, migration and finding your way - with the contrasts of fairly affluent Britain and war-torn Burundi.

Unfortunately this book feels like a mishmash of stories that don’t fully get explored - think there’s just too much going on. That said, I really did like the main characters but the parallel lives of Parfait and Augusta just didn’t work for me.

Interesting concept and potentially fascinating storyline that, for me, just didn’t work in its execution. 3*

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A bit like Eleanor Oliphant, Augusta Hope isn't your typical heroine and I have to admit that (like Eleanor Oliphant) I put this one down thinking that I couldn't get it to it and then returned to it some weeks later. I am so glad I did. Augusta and Parfait's stories really affected me, to the extent that two weeks on from finishing it, I am still thinking about them. It's a wonderful, funny, heartbreaking book with exceptional characters. I cannot recommend it highly enough and I will be buying it for all my friends! An exceptional debut.

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This is a rather sweet account of the childhood of a challenging and clever twin, of the connections and lack of connections in a family where siblings can grow differently. There's another twin story of a boy growing up in Burundi in much more difficult circumstances and becoming a migrant as does our heroine Augusta. This is a characterful and complexly interwoven story of lives, loves, sadness, loss and continuation. It repays careful reading and is highly accomplished as a debut. Some of the observations were instantly recognisable in one's own experience of childhood and growing up and many made me laugh out loud. This is a highly recommended and will be savoured by many readers.

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Thanks so much to Harper Collins, Joanna Glen and NetGalley for the opportunity to read THE OTHER HALF OF AUGUSTA HOPE.
I don't think I can praise this book highly enough, to be honest. It's beautifully written, the prose often laugh out loud which I did, simply because the family dynamic described often resembled my own, and although I didn't laugh at the time felt I could when reading about it. Augusta and Julia are twins. They were born at roughly the same time which made them twins but that is where the similarity ends. They are very different people, Julia beautiful and ready to please, Augusta different, quirky, a little offbeat. I liked her immensely. She loves words, reads the dictionary endlessly and loves etymology. I recognised her immediately. I was the same when I was young and I have autism, so I'm guessing she may also be autistic. Augusta is also an adventurer and wants to see the world, particularly Burundi which she has a special interest in simply because she liked saying the word, and then discovers she wants to know more. Her story is narrated side by side with Parfait, born in Burundi and witness to many atrocities, particularly those which involve his own family.
The writing is so heartfelt that when Julia loses her baby, Rose, you feel it too, and you understand why she does what she does because human beings can fall so low they do things they wouldn't have if they were not so entrenched in grief. There are various human conditions brought about by circumstance and many of them are covered in this wonderful, heartwrenching, beautiful story. And I loved the ending. It was just what it was meant to be.

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I requested this book for personal reasons. I have often felt different in life so I really wanted to read this and like it. Ok pleased to say I did! It resonated me in lots of ways and I’m so glad authors are exploring the differing ways people think.

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Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for this ARC of The Other Half of Augusta Hope.

Though I have given this book four stars, I have to say that the story itself merits a full five. Unfortunately, poor formatting and elementary mistakes such as not giving each speaker their own paragraph spoiled this read immensely. I realise this is an ARC and that many formatting issues will get taken care of before publishing—I would hope—but the dialogue paragraphing issues shouldn’t be here in the first place.

Okay, so, on to the tale …

Have you ever felt like you don’t fit in? Ever wanted escape a bad situation? Or felt that you just can’t go on? If so, this book will resonate with you on so many levels. Though it tackles such difficult topics, the author does this with delicacy and grace, and the whole book holds a glorious thread of humour. It had me laughing out loud a few times.

At first, I wondered what the connection could possibly be between Augusta and Parfait, but it all came clear soon enough. I loved the beginning, which had me read the first 40% of the book in one sitting. I loved the middle, which didn’t lag at all. And I loved the ending, which was well rounded and tied off nicely. The only reason I didn’t finish this wonderful book in one go was time constraint.

I haven’t read Joanna Glen before and will definitely look out for her in the future. Thank you for a great read.

***
NOTE ON RATINGS: I consider a 3-star rating a positive review. Picky about which books I give 5 stars to, I reserve this highest rating for the stories I find stunning and which moved me.

5 STARS: IT WAS AMAZING! I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! — Highly Recommended.

4 STARS: I WOULD PULL AN ALL-NIGHTER — Go read this book.

3 STARS: IT WAS GOOD! — An okay read. Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it.

2 STARS: I MAY HAVE LIKED A FEW THINGS —Lacking in some areas: writing, characterisation, and/or problematic plot lines.

1 STAR: NOT MY CUP OF TEA —Lots of issues with this book.

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An interesting and original book spanning so many different emotions. Really enjoyed reading this one.
Thanks for the advance copy

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Powerful, raw, emotional and strangely filled with hope. This book has so many layers. Simplistically, it switches between the privileged first world life of Augusta, and the devastating third world life of Parfait. She cant wait to flee suburbia and he cant wait to flee the horrors of Africa. I had thought it would the quirky "Eleanor Oliphant" vein, but quickly realised that this was not the focal point but the catalyst.
The author is skilled and weaves the story well, almost poetically. I cant say that knowingly would have read a book that handles such heavy, depressing issues, but I will say that it was delicately handled and threaded with hope so that I felt richer for having read it. It felt like a work of art and it made me think.

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