The Marble Collector by Cecelia Ahern

​This book has received mixed reviews which immediately made it appealing to me. Any story that can lead its readers to different conclusions and appraisals immediately poses a question: which side of the literary fence will I find myself at the end.

The story follows Sabrina Boggs and her father Fergus Boggs who has suffered a stroke and is now confined to a nursing home. Sabrina finds an itinerary of a specialist and extensive marble collection in her father’s possessions, but some of the most valuable marbles are missing. This latter omission is both the driver for Sabrina to discover – in one day – what has happened to them and, over a lifetime, a metaphor for how such a key part of her father’s life could have been hidden or omitted from hers.

Ahern is telling us one life story – Fergus’s childhood and journey through adulthood – in parallel with Sabrina’s dissatisfaction and boredom with her own. I guess that the obvious question throughout is how much we really know about other people (even those among the closest to us); the more interesting one is, as always, why do/did they act in certain ways.

I loved the tales from Fergus’s childhood – especially his relationship with his older brother Hamish which was to be so key to the rest of his life. I wasn’t so sure about the ending. 

I didn’t really buy into the whole eclipse symbolism. I also found the no doubt learned or well-researched descriptions of marbles a bit tedious after a while. I understand that authors need to prove that they know what their characters are talking about, but convincing me – a mere reader - was like having a marble thrown at my head, again and again.

I was able to seamlessly inhabit the thoughts in Sabrina’s and Fergus’s heads in turn, and I did find the style of writing quite beautiful throughout. So, structurally, I thought the book worked effortlessly, with the words satisfyingly and believably providing the fat to cover the book’s body even as we were encouraged, via Sabrina, to dissect it.

Overall, I did get involved with both main characters, their struggles sustaining me for the entire book, although I’m not sure if either found true peace. Perhaps that’s the point: marbles, like life, are never clear-cut.

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