The Half Life of Stars

Daniel, the older brother of Claire, has disappeared and there seems to be no reason why he should do so. While the family tries to find reasons for Daniel’s absence, their own deeply buried baggage surfaces. The novel starts on the day of the Challenger space shuttle disaster in 1986 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Daniel watches the explosion with his father. They had been there the day before to watch it, but the launch was cancelled and re-scheduled for the day after. While stuck in a traffic jam after the failed launch, events take a terrible turn. What happened that day has consequences for everyone decades later.

Louise Werner takes us on a journey of family disfunction, long-buried guilt and the truth behind why Daniel has disappeared. Werner builds up the tension with a sense of foreboding in the first chapter. From the weather where ‘a deep, rare chill’ had swept the state and palm trees swayed ‘uneasily beneath a stiff crust of frost,’ to descriptions of the people of Florida having trouble sleeping, the reader feels the unease. ‘Old men lay awake worrying about their pets. Fruit growers worried about their oranges. Cuban emigres worried about their relatives making landfall in the sub-zero cold and hoteliers fretted about lost business.’ The rocket’s explosion is symbolic of what’s to come and also mirrors the fractured relationship between the father and son, which the trip to Cape Canaveral was supposed to mend.

Years later, Daniel goes missing. There seems to be no reason why he would suddenly disappear. Claire sets out to uncover the truth about her brother. The trail of his last movements puzzles the family. He eats food he is known to dislike, and at restaurants he would never go to. It looks like he might be having an affair and is perhaps depressed, both of which are out of character.

The story is told by Claire in the first person. I loved the prickly, irreverent nature of Claire and warmed to her character as the novel progressed. Claire is the underdog, the one picked on by the rest of the family, especially by her mother who favours the younger sister, Sylvie. Claire doesn’t like herself very much, but by the end of the novel, Claire has more of an understanding about why her family behaves as it does. The reader also has more of an understanding about Claire. The story moves between the UK and the USA and follows Claire’s attempts to find Daniel. In between her search, we find Claire trying to work out her life, her love life and the dynamics of her relationship with her family. Claire knows her brother better than any other member of her family and so, with the help of her ex-husband, she sets off to uncover the truth. It’s not a perfect novel. I found the sub-plot irritating and a few of the minor characters quite unbelievable, but overall, I liked it. The style is easy to read, and this reader came to care about what happens to Claire.

This is a novel about the nature of love, trauma, and loss, of family secrets and how to process the events of the past.