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Dancing on Knives Kindle Edition

by Kate Forsyth (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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A damaged family and their generations of dangerous secrets

At twenty, Sara is tormented by terror so profound she hasn’t left her home in five years. Like the mermaid in the fairytale her Spanish grandmother once told her, Sara imagines she is dancing on knives. She feels suffocated by her family, especially her father – the famous artist Augusto Sanchez – whose volcanic passions dominate their lives.

Then one stormy night, her father does not come home. His body is found dangling from a cliff face. Astonishingly, he is still alive, but the mystery of his fall can only be solved by the revelation of long-held family secrets.

At once a suspenseful murder mystery and a lyrical love story, Dancing on Knives is about how family can constrict and liberate us, how art can be both joyous and destructive, and how strength can be found in the unlikeliest places.

Length: 267 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Page Flip: Enabled	Language: English

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Product description

About the Author

Kate Forsyth is the internationally bestselling author of more than twenty books, including The Witches of Eileanan and Rhiannon's Ride series for adults, and The Puzzle Ring, The Gypsy Crown, and The Starthorn Tree for children. She has won or been nominated for numerous awards. Her books have been published in 14 different countries, including Japan, Poland, Spain, Russia - where Bitter Greens has recently hit the bestseller lists - and Turkey, and Kate is currently undertaking a doctorate in fairytale retellings at the University of Technology. Her recent novels include Bitter Greens, a retelling of Rapunzel, and The Wild Girl, the story of how the Grimm brothers collected their folk tales. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Book Description

A damaged family and their generations of dangerous secrets --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

ASIN : B00HV52FU0
Publisher : Random House Australia (2 June 2014)
Language : English
File size : 609 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 267 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 485,606 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 13,234 in Murder Thrillers
- 24,210 in Contemporary Fiction (Kindle Store)
- 35,104 in Thrillers (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
9 ratings

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Top reviews from Australia

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Jacqueline Murray

Bit slow at start

Reviewed in Australia on 2 July 2014

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Took me abit to get into this book, but the story improved in the 2nd half. Glad I took the time to finish book.

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Desley Bartlett

Do not pirchase

Reviewed in Australia on 27 July 2014

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Not very interesting at all. Very slow and goes nowwhere.not one of her better novels. Would not recommend this novel

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Review

Reviewed in Australia on 7 July 2014

Twenty year old Sara has not left her family's farm for five years. We never really learn what's behind her fear of what lies beyond, but she, her brothers and half sister have endured a difficult life with their father, the (once) renowned painter Spaniard Augusto Sanchez.

Having recently rediscovered his creative mojo, Augusto is off painting when a severe storm breaks out. Her siblings are oblivious to any dangers, but Sara (taking after her paternal grandmother, Consuelo, a fortune teller) senses something is wrong. And, eventually Augusto is found - having fallen down a cliff and only just clinging to life.

Read more in my blog:[...]

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Sasha Rajak

Good, but worth the read

Reviewed in Australia on 1 June 2015

I have always liked Kate Forsyth’s books, and the idea of her having reworked this story many times before appealed to me. However, I had – and still do – mixed feelings about Dancing on Knives. While it sprinkles hints of The Little Mermaid throughout in a subtle and masterful way, I found the story itself to be not as interesting. While The Wild Girl deals with very dark themes, I felt that Dancing on Knives was just…depressing. It dragged at times, and not much happened. However, I liked the ending, which was a blend of positivity and negativity – a nice, real close. Sara’s change over the course of the novel was both interesting and liberating and made the ending all the more enjoyable.

On the whole, I would recommend Dancing on Knives, as it is another addition to Kate Forsyth’s admirable works, and deserves to be read, despite whatever qualms I had about it.

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Top reviews from other countries

carolynfromoz

Mystery death of an artist

Reviewed in the United States on 9 November 2014

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I was immediately drawn into this story right from the first chapter where Sara Sanchez is sitting in her kitchen on Good Friday worrying about where her father could be so late on such a wet and stormy night. Twenty two year old Sara has been frightened all her life, a sensitive girl who was bullied and marginalised as a child, she left school prematurely after a particularly nasty incident when she could take no more and has refused to leave the house since. She suffers from nightmares and panic attacks and often feels like the little mermaid from the story her beloved Spanish grandmother, Consuela, would tell her, dancing on knives and unable to speak. She now keeps house for the family and survives by devouring endless trashy romances and reading the tarot cards left to her by her beloved grandmother.

Kate Forsyth paints a picture of Sara's father, Augustus Sanchez as a passionate, brilliant artist who loves to live life to the full, but is a womanising, egotistical man who care only for himself and gives little heed to the needs or feelings of his family. As his family grows, he spend less time at home and more in his studio leaving his family to fend for themselves. When Sara's mother is expecting twin boys Augustus' mother Consuela arrives to help out and fills Sara's head with old stories and myths. When she dies she leaves Sara her recipe book and precious tarot cards. After a move back to her old homestead on the coast Sara's mother is also tragically killed and within months Augustus has married his mistress and moved her and their daughter Teresa into the house with Sara, the twins and her older brother Joe, who is trying to run the farm.

Augustus is finally found on that stormy Good Friday, hanging on a branch over a cliff. While he feebly clings to life, Sara and her siblings must come to terms with the events that have led up to this tragedy and try to mold themselves into a more functional family. There are many twists and turns as the suspense slowly builds and the mystery of Augustus' fall unfold.

The book tells an unusual story of a dysfunctional family and is beautifully written. The power of the sea and the story of the little mermaid are strong themes that weave through the story and eventually allow Sara to overcome her fear and break out of the prison that she has built around herself. Food is another strong theme throughout the book, with the smell and taste of the hot, spicy Spanish dishes that Augustus loves almost wafting out of the pages. I really enjoyed this dark, powerful story with a satisfying ending.Highly recommended.

Karen B

Haunting tale of familial discord

Reviewed in the United States on 7 July 2014

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Whatever I was expecting when I picked up this novel, Dancing on Knives, it was not what Kate Forsyth delivered. Having said that, the story of Sara Sanchez, a young woman tormented by loss, longing, and a hugely dysfunctional family dominated by her egotistical, passionate and bullying artist father, Augusto Sanchez, is a study in how the mind and body can become a far worse prison than four walls ever can. This is a novel about betrayal, choices, trust, anger, grief and healing, one that lingers long after completion.

Suffering from panic attacks and an anxiety disorder (that's never named but heart-wrenchingly described), Sara tries to keep herself and what remains of her family together - her difficult father, surly older brother, the twins, and her resentful step-sister. Unable to leave the property that defines her life past and present, when her father disappears one stormy night, Sara is forced to confront not only her crippling fears, but the family history and secrets that have formed her, the present that defines her and the future that awaits her if she chooses.

The tale of Sara and the Sanchez family slowly unfolds, often told through vignettes of Sara's childhood and recollections of the Sanchez family before she was born and the Spanish traditions her grandmother and father tried to keep alive, before being interrupted by events in the present as the search for her father and the wreckage his presence has left are revealed. Food, stories and rituals play a big role in this narrative, becoming anchoring points and it's through these that Sara often escapes her bleak reality - these and the Tarot cards she sometimes reads as way of containing and preparing for what might happen next.

The mystery of Augusto and his fate, while it sets the action, mostly plays second fiddle to the mystery of Sara's state of mind and her gradual, painful healing.

This is not a happy tale, but it is haunting and like all Forsyth's works, beautifully written. For those anticipating another Bitter Greens, this book isn't it and the metaphor of the little mermaid is used powerfully but in ways that "speak" (excuse the pun) to the underlying meanings of silence - it's constraints, power and its punishing consequences. After finishing this, I was sad for days, angry at the forces within and without that can shape who we become and how our choices can be framed and limited by those others make, and though it left me frustrated and strangely dissatisfied, the beauty and truth of this tale is undeniable.

Amazon Customer

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United States on 29 May 2016

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Lovely read.

Amelia Cox

Brilliant book. Her later books are more complex and ...

Reviewed in the United States on 10 October 2015

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Brilliant book. Her later books are more complex and developed but this book shows me how Kate began as a writer and I love the intense simplicity of the plot. A real Gothic moodiness to this book.

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