After the Rain - Book Review
Genre: Fiction | Contemporary fiction
Author: Aisling Smith
Year: 2023
Pages: 368
On a recent family holiday to Melbourne, I unintentionally picked up a copy of After the Rain. It wasn’t on my radar at the time – I made a meticulous list of Australian books to buy that I was determined to stick to, not only for the sake of my bank balance, but also for the sake of my suitcase.
Looking back, I was overly ambitious with my holiday book shopping list (I still don’t know how I managed to bring home nine books without needing a new suitcase… and most of the books were big, thick tomes). When I saw After the Rain sitting pretty on a bookshelf in Dymocks on Collins Street, I knew I was taking this book home with me. I’m glad I went into this book blind, sometimes diving into a new book with little to no information on it makes the reading experience all the more intriguing.
Malti Fortune is uneasy. Her linguist husband, Benjamin, is becoming a stranger in front of her own eyes. She doesn’t recognise this man who is cold, distant and fails to show up when she needs him. Perhaps Malti is just paying too much attention to the stories and superstitions from her Fijian and Indian heritage. But as the years pass, Malti and Benjamin’s daughters begin to form their own ideas of their father. The easy-going, fun-loving dad of her childhood is not enough for Ellery anymore, growing weary of Benjamin’s continuous disappearances, often for months on end. For Verona, she can’t imagine life without her doting father.
Despite their different relationships with Benjamin, Verona, Ellery and Malti each need to confront their ghosts in order to answer the question: what truly makes a family?
After the Rain is definitely a contender for my favourite book of 2023. I know when a book is an all-time favourite of mine because I don’t want it to end. I’m in awe of the author – this is Aisling Smith’s debut novel. The writing is expertly crafted and there are so many beautiful lines and passages throughout this novel. If I annotated my books, there would be huge sections of After the Rain that would be highlighted and underlined – the story just flows so easily.
“He took her hand, and from that moment on she had always remembered the word in the aftermath of rain when the earth came alive. Petrichor: possibility and renewal. A Benjamin word, perhaps, but a Malti concept–something that, of the two of them, only she had lived.”
The novel is cleverly divided into different parts, with Malti, Ellery and Verona having their own section. I liked this aspect because it gives each of the main female characters their own viewpoint and the reader the insight into Benjamin’s relationship with his wife and daughters. I loved learning about each female character and their own complex relationship with Benjamin – as a wife, an estranged daughter and easy-going daughter. He has an impact on all their lives, for better or worse. There’s an aura of melancholy about this book, as well as added mystery and intrigue as we learn more about the family dynamics and relationships. I also love to read books set in places I have lived (After the Rain is set in Melbourne!).
If you want to read a story about complex family relationships, their dynamics, about belonging and culture, look no further than After the Rain.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★