Marking Time by Elizabeth Jane Howard

#MarkingTime #NetGalley

Five stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I read the first of The Cazalet Chronicles (The Light Years) and it was a five star title for me. The CCs include five books written by Howard that are going to be reissued. There will be an additional three titles written by Howard’s niece. The first of these has been published in England.

Marking Time was every bit as good as its predecessor and I am so thankful to have found this absorbing, emotional saga with characters whose lives are intimately detailed. This second book follows the middle generation of Rachel/Sid, Sybil/Hugh, Edward/Villy and Rupert/Zoe while also following Villy’s sister Jessica and her family. In addition, though, this book follows the children of these characters. Some are under the age of five so won’t get much mention in this review but readers watch as Louise, Polly, Clary, Christopher and others begin to grow up. These older teens are “Marking Time,” with some feeling caught in the world of childhood while waiting to be more adult. For example, Louise is pursuing an acting career and a relationship with Michael, a portrait painter. She has also discovered things about her parents that challenge her beliefs about them. For her part, Polly knows that her mother seems ill but that no-one wants to talk about it and, for Clary, her father’s absence is challenging and heart breaking.

There are sections devoted to individual characters, along with others that bring the whole family together. At close to 600 pages, readers are deeply immersed. I still want to know more about the Cs and will be reading Confusion with joy and anticipation. In my opinion, this is a remarkable series.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for this title. All opinions are my own.

Mark your calendar for this book’s March 2027 release.

Description:

from the publisher

As the shadows of World War II loom over England, a new generation takes up the family’s story in the second novel in this beloved and bestselling Cazalet Chronicles

Sussex, 1939. War looms once more—an unthinkable return for a nation still scarred by the last. The Cazalets gather again at Home Place, but not for summer leisure; they come together for safety, the sunlit rituals of childhood giving way to fear and uncertainty.

As the daughters of Edward, Hugh, and Rupert come of age, their private ambitions and heartbreaks unfold under mounting pressure. Louise, who dreams of the stage, begins to see her parents not as pillars but as fallible, fragile people. Sensitive Polly is paralyzed by dread, her nightmares colored by the reality of war. And Clary, an aspiring writer, must confront the unthinkable: her beloved father is missing in France.

Poignant and unsparing, Marking Time reveals how love, loyalty, and ambition are tested when innocence gives way to experience—and a family must decide who they will become as the world changes forever.

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