Beginning of Was

By Ania Szado

Marta has grown up in the midst of loss, and has learned to adapt and thrive. But when her young daughter and alcoholic husband die in a car wreck, there is no way to cope. She flees her small Ontario... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143017292
• ISBN13: 9780143017295
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: Penguin Books Canada
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Beginning of Was - a compelling novel about the human spirit

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the novel Beginning of Was. Author Ania Szado takes the reader on an intensely emotional roller-coaster ride in her gripping, well-crafted story of love remembered, lost and found, of one woman's harsh journey through grief that pushes to the limit, to her eventual salvation from despair, the beginning of healing and reconciliation. For Marta Fett, "was" begins with the death of her five-year-old daughter, Asha, in a car accident which also kills her drinking husband and Asha's father, Kurt. The story is told in a smooth interplay of flashbacks to Marta's own traumatic youth, the cruel, sweet recollections of her Asha, and her life in the present as a homeless desperate charity case helping out in a rectory and a dying old woman's home. Ania Szado is a master craftsman with words. Her sentences are rich in imagery and metaphor, her use of words meticulously accurate and expressive. I admire her clever subtlety and amazing ability to tease, as when Marta writes on a piece of paper which she hides inside the hem of a First Communion gown in the final pages of the novel - on one side is the word "believe," and on the other side, "in despair." Which side is to be read first? I LOVE this book and very strongly recommend it.

Beautifully rendered story of grief and reconciliation

This is a lovely, short novel, about a woman who must come toterms with the grief over the loss of her young daughter. The mysteriesof the novel unravel themselves slowly as you begin to gain acomplete picture of the history that haunts the main character and learnmore about the people around her. And just when you think thejourney is complete, something completely surprising happenstoward the end of the novel that is enlightening and incredibly moving.The writing style is highly imagistic and lyrical, it took a little gettingused to but this is a book mostly about grief and emotions and thelanguage of the novel conveys these emotions beautifully. A wonderfulnovel about coming to terms with life's greatest pains and losses.Very strongly recommend.