We Hope for Better Things by Erin Bartels

Catalogue copy: Debut novelist Erin Bartels takes readers on an emotional journey through time – from the volatile streets of 1960s Detroit to the Underground Railroad during the Civil War – to uncover the past, confront the seeds of hatred, and discover where love goes to hide.

This is a very well written and powerful novel set mainly across two time periods – the US civil war and 1960s Detroit.  It doesn't pull any punches as it moves through these two significant times in US history.  This is a book where you really feel as though you're immersed in the story.  Or, probably more accurately 'stories'.  The tensions flow through every chapter at levels both very personal, and much wider reaching. 

In the present day, reporter Elizabeth Balsam meets James Rich, who asks her to deliver an old camera and a mysterious box of photos to the great-aunt she has never met.  Abruptly finding herself jobless (for a reason which seems like the start of a different story, and which fades into the background for most of the rest of the book) she sets off to her great-aunt Nora’s 150 year old farmhouse, and soon finds herself with a whole host of unanswered questions such as whose are the graves in the overgrown back yard? Who is William? And who is the woman in the photographs in the basement? Getting answers from Nora is going to be tough as she is not at all keen to discuss the past.

However we the readers learn about Nora’s past more quickly than Elizabeth does, and are plunged into the racial tension of the 60s – events which still impact Elizabeth’s family’s present day.  And further back in time Mary Balsam, another relative, abruptly finds herself faced with an escaped slave who has been sent to her home by her husband Nathaniel who is away fighting in the US Civil War.  Sheltering one man quickly becomes sheltering others, to the shock, dismay and growing animosity of the local people, and the shredding of Mary’s heart.

I found this book fascinating from a historical perspective.  As I’m English, I didn’t know much about the explosions of the racial tension in Detroit in the ‘60s and the book portrayed them brilliantly, bringing the whole situation alive to me in the way that good novels set around actual events do.

I felt connected to the characters, so I was disappointed by some of their actions!  I was also sad about the way Mary’s son turned out, but perhaps it is more like ‘real life’ and less like ‘happy ever after’ fiction! But mostly, I was sad for Nora.  

Despite these comments, this isn’t a morose book, but it is definitely one which makes you think. Which clearly I struggled to do as on the down side I did find myself muddled from time to time about who was who and what their connection was. 

I would happily recommend this book to lovers of historical fiction.  It’s nice to read something which covers a period which I’ve not commonly read much about in novels, and an issue – racial tension – which is sadly still all too topical.

9780800734916, paperback, £8.99