"Not only was he no longer at home in his own house, but he was no longer at home ion his own skin."The book ends with a conclusion that would have been hard to predict at the start and it makes you fell very sad about the way that people can be bullied for no genuine reason. In the end Gina’s disappearance unravels Jonas Milk’s world and all of the insecurities emerge and he feels he has only one option, one act that can make it all better.
Bullet points between pages 120 – 140
* Jonas is escorted home by two detectives who ask him to take them through his home room by room and by the end of the search, which is witnessed by several neighbours, Jonas feels completely alienated from his world and home
* He goes into the backyard and plans to take his own life but then decides that he has no reason for that and wanders back through to make a cup of coffee before being disturbed by a knocking on the door
* A woman who works in a hotel tells him that his wife has been there with travelling salesmen for the past few days and it looks as if she has gone with him to Paris culminating an affair that has been going on for six months
* Armed with that information Jonas thinks about heading to the police station to clear his name and point them in the right direction and the reader assumes he has gone to do that but suddenly the focus shifts to the market gossips and they are all concerned they have not seen him
* Not concerned in a caring way but in the same intrusive inquisitive way that has led Jonas to the brink – with a wife that feared him, a community that has turned their back on him and a family that abandoned him – he takes his own life and is found hanging in the back yard
What a punch in the guts that ending is and it makes you question every time you have ever been tempted to get involved with office gossip
A review will follow soonish…
