Cover Image: The Other Half of Augusta Hope

The Other Half of Augusta Hope

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Member Reviews

Augusta Hope is the other twin - Julia is the beautiful one who everyone feels able to easily connect with. Augusta is harder work. Whilst Julia wants to stay at home and marry the boy next door, Augusta wants to go to University and travel. Her favourite book is the dictionary, she collates a folder on Burundi and hopes to go there one day. Augusta follows her own path, tells people what she thinks and drives her very conventional family mad.

Alongside the story of Augusta, chapters are alternated with Parfait and his story. He lives in Burundi - a country torn apart by Civil War. Parfaits family is destroyed by the horrors of this war, so he and his younger brother leave for what they feel will be a better life in Spain. Life has more sadness to throw at Parfait, though - and Augusta is dealt a cruel hand as well. She finds solace in Spain, which is where Parfait and Augusta are destined to meet.

I liked the alternating chapters of Augusta and Parfait - this device really highlighted the huge differences in their lives early on. As the story progresses though, it also shows that no matter how different we may all appear, there are actually more similarities than differences. We are all human; we all experience love and loss.

This was such a good way to highlight the refugee crisis in Europe. At a couple of points in the story, Parfait announces to the Spanish town how many people had died in the Mediterranean that year in their quest to live a better life. This book is heartbreaking in more than this one way. Both characters suffer unimaginable loss, and both learn to value life, a feeling of home and belonging.

It’s a wonderful book, and one that I’d heartily recommend. Many thanks to NetGalley and The Borough Press for my ebook copy.

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An emotional book on many sides. It was interesting to run the lives parallel and the ending seemed inevitable but the journey there was harrowing and insightful in places. This was chosen as our Book Club novel and very highly received. Thank you for letting me read it.

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I tried to finish this book but failed. It wasn’t for me, it just couldn’t hold my attention.

Many thanks to netgalley and Joanna Glen for the advanced copy of this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

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Oh this was such a lovely book! I loved everything about it - most of all Augusta (who is just so likeable) but also the other characters, the surroundings. I couldn't put it down from the first page. It made me feel emotional, very sad and happy to read it at the same time. You can really emphasise with Augusta and just want to give her a hug. Please make this into a film! And please read it!

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I really tried to get into this book and struggled, so put it down. I tried again a few days later and was still just as confused with the various storylines running through the book and unfortunately I had to give up on it.

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With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the arc, which I have enjoyed reading.
Whilst I appreciate many other reader will enjoy reading this book, I found I kept wandering off whilst reading it. So, I am sorry that this book wasn’t for me. Maybe for younger readers and lovers of romance.
Recommended.

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Augusta is a twin to Julia and the two are complete opposites, Julia is a lovely child very sweet and normal whereas Augusta is odd, completely absorbed in words and their meanings and an African country called Burundi that she picked off a map. Parfait comes from war torn Burundi and is desperate to escape with his family and get to Spain..... but how will their stories collide?

A lovely story told in different chapters by Augusta and Parfait, which worked well. I loved the character of Augusta and how she was always so different and how her life panned out, a book that I didn't want to finish and that stayed with me after I had finished it

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This book held so much potential but unfortunately I just could not get to grips with the story lane. I found it difficult to read flitting back and forth between characters and although I loved augustas character I did not finish the book.

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I loved this book - it’s a brilliant debut with interesting characters, that questions what we know about home and family. Augusta is a fascinating character, and I loved reading as she developed - the relationship and contrast between her and Julia is beautifully written, especially after tragedy. This book grew and grew on me until I didn’t want it to finish! A wonderful first novel, I can’t wait to read more from Joanna Glen!

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The Other Half of Augusta Hope by Joanna Glen
This is an astonishing debut novel achingly beautiful and fiercely intelligent. It is interspersed with poetry by Federica Garcia Lorca and it is the magical story of twins, Julia and Augusta, separated by a day at birth and startlingly different to each other.
Julia is beautiful, conformist and malleable. She is the favoured daughter in the family and presents no challenge to her parents. Augusta is much more challenging she is very bright and questions everything her parents stand for and their conventional family life in Hedley. From the earliest age Augusta is obsessed with language and strives to develop her language. She is desperate to escape from her limited life in Hedley and decides at an early age that Burundi is her favourite country. She sets out to learn everything there is to know about the difficult, war torn country. She loves language and breaks from the normal pattern by opting to learn Spanish in addition to French.
Both girls decide that they want to win the heart of Diego their Spanish neighbour and the family change their life long pattern and holiday in Spain. It is during this holiday that the relationship between Julia and Augusta changes; she feels cut adrift without her other half.
Running alongside the story of Augusta is that of Parfait, from Burundi, who dreams of a new life in Spain away from the death and destruction which has always filled his life. We know that these strands will eventually entwine and when they do so it brings us to a very satisfactory conclusion.
I am thoroughly recommending it to all my book groups. It is a novel which appeals to a range of ages and has a wonderful emotional depth. Augusta’s story will live in my heart for a very long time. I would like to thank Harper Collins, the publishers and Net Galley for enabling me to read such an enriching and life affirming novel.

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I recieved a copy of this book from Netgalley in return for an honest review.

This is the book that reignited my reading mojo. So its told from the perspective of two people, Augusta and Parfait. Augusta is a twin, her and Julia are very close, and the only children to their parents. The story starts as the girls are young, follows them as they grow, and shows the changes their personalities take on.

Parfait is a young boy who lives in Burundi, and dreams of living somewhere different, somewhere better, where he can be away from the bad that goes on. He leaves with his little brother Zion, heading for Spain. Both sets of siblings lives are so different to the other, but they intertwine in different ways.

4 stars from me

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Firstly I'd like to say thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins Fiction for allowing me the chance to read this eARC.

I actually started reading this over a year ago but just put it down as I wasn't invested in it and never picked it up again. I thought i'd give it a go now whilst trying to get through my NetGalley library, but I was just really struggling with the writing and I couldn't get into the book. The writing felt so disjointed to me at times and so hard to immerse yourself in. I had to DNF because I just wasn't enjoying it.

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I'm ashamed to say this book has been sat on my bookshelf for too long. I kept hearing great things about it but on my shelf it managed to stay. Whilst it took me till about 30% in to be invested in the story I'm glad I persevered because I devoured the rest of this book in a day! 

I loved Augusta and the simplicity of her views that people often mistook for being weird or less intelligent. Her fascination with words amused me and made me realise there are probably a lot of ways I could expand my vocabulary. Justa were a sweet pair and I loved seeing how their relationship developed/changed, especially where Diego was concerned. Parfait was an interesting character and his story was so fascinating. Whilst this book is a work of fiction his character represents what happened to real people and it saddens me to think that it did. I would love to see a further book where he goes back to see his brother and Victor, to have that family reunion. 

As well as having interesting and memorable characters the setting was brilliant. Joanna Glen describes the scenery beautifully, I would love to of galloped along the beach or witnessed the flamenco dancing and hopefully one day I will. 

There were some very touching scenes and apart from the obvious ones there were many that brought tears to me eyes. I particularly liked the telephone conversation between Augusta and her mother towards the end of the story. It felt like they both finally got the closure they needed. 

At the end of the book I felt that everything was neatly tied up and finished. I loved the link between Augusta and Parfait, by the end I didn't mind her father too much either! This story spoke volumes about family, love, friendship and had a very interesting take on it, what a great first novel. I can't wait to see what Joanna Glen writes next.

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Augusta and Julia Hope live in a small English village with their parents. Although they are twins, they could not be more different. They are chalk and cheese. Augusta is tall and troubsome, Julia is small and sweet-tempered. To their parents, Augusta is a nuisance, too opinionated and loud for one so young. But she is also inquisitive, observant and fiercely intelligent. She looks upon their suburb, it's inhabitants and sees what others miss, the hypocrisy, the tension, the shades of light and dark.


Lonely and dreaming of escaping the suburb for faraway, exotic places, Augusta has always struggled to fit, to find a rythem. One of her few passions is learning new words, collecting them like people collect stamps. Strange-sounding and with definitions that beguile her. One of her favourites is "Burundi." A distant place in the clutches of the jungle which will come to mean more to her than she can possibly know.



Parfait dreams of only one thing: freedom. In the mist of the civil war, his family live in poverty, the threat drawing ever closer. Burundi is no longer safe. With a single sliver of hope, Parfait must lead his family to the sanctum of Spain, crossing wide expanses and facing danger.


The Other Half of Augusta Hope explores many themes, one of which being the power of sisterhood, the ties and bonds that can last forever. Augusta feels she does not belong in the small town. The people around her, including her parents, do not understand her. Her only companion and confidant is her twin Juila. And nothing can break this love, not even a tragedy which will break everything else.


This is a gorgeously evocative novel about courage, discovery and love. Augusta and Parfait's stories enmesh in the most startling way. The author portrays her characters with warmth and wit and a curiosity and bravery that enamours the reader to them. She draws the readers' eye to their idiosyncrasies, their differences, to what makes them special. A fabulous novel and much needed slice of escapism.

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I loved this book much more than I imagined. I find the dual narrative tricky to begin with and I didn’t understand why Parfait was part of the story but I began to see how their hopes and dreams and outlook on life were entwined.
Joanna Glen writes poignantly about family life and has created some heartfelt characters who you constantly root for. A brilliant debut by a ‘one to watch’ author.

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Wowzer. I really.enjoyed this. There are so many other halves of Augusta depending on your viewpoint. Highly recommended.

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Augusta is the rebel half of twins. Her sister is the perfect child and adult. Augusta is continually looking for more.. The story is in two parts and I found it difficult to stay involved.

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Who wouldn't love this book!? The characters make you feel you are part of their lives, you experience their highs and lows just as you would in your own lives with the hope that the ending would turn out well for them, after all a fairy tale always does doesn't it? This is a fabulous book, humorous, poignant and a true reflection of modern life. A great read - highly recommended.

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As cliche and ugly as it sounds, this book literally drew me in at the first few sentences (and also on the copyright page when I spotted Phillip Larkin’s name… I’m not too fond of the guy, but I studied him for my AS course so I kind of felt like I had to read this.)

This was the fastest I’ve ever connected with a character in a book, but that’s probably down to a lot of contextual factors that are very me-specific. It’s a good job this is my blog and I can say that our protagonist Augusta is literally one of the most relatable characters I’ve ever read, you can quote me on that.

So we get started on the book and we’re immediately immersed in the childhood of Augusta, which is pretty standard but so beautifully written and I was honestly in love by the first chapter.

And suddenly, just as we’re getting into Augusta’s life and all of her Very British Problems, we’re thrown into the world of Parfait, a young boy growing up in war-torn Burundi around the same time as Augusta grows up in Southern England. These two narratives seem completely separate for a good majority of the novel, but Glen somehow makes this work.

It kinda – very broadly – reminded me of Anabel Pitcher’s Ketchup Clouds which was one of my favourite books when I was younger, which is probably another reason as to why I loved it so much. It kind of got to the point where one of our narrators would say something and it would resonate with me so much that my chest would kind of constrict when I was highlighting it. I cannot say this enough, the way Joanna Glen uses words is incredible, making this novel one of the most infatuating books I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading.

This novel is about living, and humans, and losing someone that’s as much a part of you as yourself. It’s painful a lot of the time, but it’s also beautiful. The author revels in humanity, this novel left me feeling both absolutely shattered, and completely brand new.

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The Other Half of Augusta Hope By Joanna Glen was so sweet! But before smiling and crying happy tears, my heart was broken. ⠀

Loved the alternating chapters between Augusta and Pairfait. The two points of views and stories were beautifully written. The ending was so perfect-perfecto.⠀

I could totally relate with some of Augusta's characteristics and obsessions, there's something about quirky characters that I just happen to love so much.⠀

Thank you so much @netgalley and @harpercollinsuk for the opportunity of reading this one in exchange of an honest review.⠀

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