THE WATCHER IN THE PINE, Rebecca Pawel

(originally posted on January 11, 2005)

Pawel's debut rightly knocked a lot of people's socks off but she's improved in an impressive manner since then, now that her main characters are established and she has even more political and war-related themes to play with. But the best parts are those involving Tejada and his independent, fiercely individual wife Elena, whose complex relatlionship is depicted in a realistic and thoughtful manner. It also helps that Pawel's writing is so lovely it's making me jealous at the moment.