Certainty: A Novel

Madeleine Thien
Little, Brown and Company (2007)
ISBN 9780316834995
Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for Reader Views (3/07)

It’s been a year since Gail died.  Ansel still remembers the warmth of her body next to his and cherishes the sound of her voice on tape.  Gail had begun a documentary.  It was important to her and it’s unfinished.  It is the story of her father Matthew Lim and an investigation of her grandfather’s death.  The story line begins in the future and travels to the past in a unique writing style.

Matthew’s father had once own a rubber plantation in Malaysia but the Japanese army now controlled it.  Before the war they had lived in a nice house. But the war had changed many things.  The Japanese had taken over the school and now the students had to learn to sing Japanese songs.  Matthew and his best friend, Ani, were only ten-years old, but they roamed the jungles.  Years later Matthew and Ani meet again, and their love reawakens, but cannot overcome politics and the suspicions that Matthew’s father assisted the Japanese.  They quietly go their separate ways; Ani does not tell him that she is pregnant.  Matthew goes on with his life moving to Vancouver. He marries Clara and cherishes their daughter Gail.

Each character in “Certainty” weaves in his, or her, own thread of the past.  Each recounts their individual history in such a way that the story becomes a tapestry of many lives.  The story flows smoothly.  The characters jump off the pages and come to life.  Gail is driven to find the truth. This is not a novel that I could pick up and read in one setting.  The words must be pondered.  The truth behind the words must be sought.  Madeleine Thien is a talented writer and I believe we will be reading more of her books.  I highly recommend this book.

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