The Canterbury Sisters by Kim Wright

I will confess that I have not read Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, but I thoroughly enjoyed The Canterbury Sisters, Kim Wright’s new novel about a group of eight modern day women walking the 60 miles from London to Canterbury Cathedral.  

Like Chaucer’s pilgrims, these women, aged from late teens to late 60’s or older, agree to each share a story along the way.  Their theme? Love. The Canterbury Sisters explores several mother-daughter relationships as well as those between spouses and close female friends. The central character, Che de Milan, is a wine reviewer by profession and a wordsmith by avocation, eagerly sharing terms like a charm of hummingbirds. She is struggling to fit in with the group while dealing with a recent break-up and the loss of her own mother.

Speaking of storytelling, Wright describes it as “an act of faith,” advancing the belief that “we’re all headed somewhere, that the seemingly random events of our lives mean something” even though “it’s nearly impossible to grasp the meaning of our own.” Wright also crafts articles about food and travel and her expertise in those areas combined with somewhat surprising discoveries add to the feeling of making a journey with The Canterbury Sisters.  If you have enjoyed books by JoJo Moyes or The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty or Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson, this is definitely a fun and entertaining work of women’s fiction for you and/or your book group.  Questions and topics for discussion, plus ideas to enhance the group (how about a “walk and talk” for this title?) are included.