The House of Special Purpose - John Boyne

The House of Special Purpose - John Boyne (2009)

Georgy Jacmenev is 16, when he saves a senior member of the Russian Imperial Family from an assasination attempt. Suddenly swept from his family, and life on the farm he is taken off to St Petersberg to a new life.

Then over 60 years later, in London Georgy recalls his life with his wife Zoya, as she slips further away from him with her cancer. Recalling how they met, and their early life in Paris and then London, we get to travel back and forth through their relationship.

Of course you guess the secret to the story early on, I liked this book, and much more than many of the Romananov stories I have picked up lately. John Boyne is a good writer, it flowed and kept constant throughout, and I wanted to get into bed and read it at night, to find out what happened. Out of interest, John Boyne is the author who wrote 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas", as well as several other books.

Lots of the books I have tried recently seem a bit dry, a bit of hard work to read through, but I felt with this one I could see the story in my head. So for the good effort, and because it was just what I needed, I think it deserves a 4/5.