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Through All Our Heavens
Jan. 28th, 2026 09:06 amThis is my fourth Netgalley ARC and it was another winner!
Through All Our Heavens by Olivia Hawker is a split narrative novel. One thread follows Helen Bywater throughout the American Civil War in the 1860s, as she struggles to keep her Southern estate running while also doing whatever she can to help the Northern cause. The other thread is set in 2053, after the US has split apart and is in the throes of another civil war. Derryn, an art historian is called behind the Blockade to study a cache of paintings that's been discovered - which seem to date back to the 1860s but depict scenes from the 2050s.
But it didn't proceed how I was expecting at all. The ways in which the two storylines connect are more thematic than actual, with both women taking parallel journeys within the turbulence of their respective times.
The themes themselves are explored and stated rather bluntly, with the author perhaps overexplaining her point throughout and both storylines felt a bit dragged out in the second half - but the writing is beautiful, both historical and futuristic settings are vivid and immersive (though the potential prescience of the events leading up to Derryn's not-too-distant world is chilling), I connected with and got invested in both protagonists, and the ending felt satisfying and deeply resonant.
Through All Our Heavens by Olivia Hawker is a split narrative novel. One thread follows Helen Bywater throughout the American Civil War in the 1860s, as she struggles to keep her Southern estate running while also doing whatever she can to help the Northern cause. The other thread is set in 2053, after the US has split apart and is in the throes of another civil war. Derryn, an art historian is called behind the Blockade to study a cache of paintings that's been discovered - which seem to date back to the 1860s but depict scenes from the 2050s.
But it didn't proceed how I was expecting at all. The ways in which the two storylines connect are more thematic than actual, with both women taking parallel journeys within the turbulence of their respective times.
The themes themselves are explored and stated rather bluntly, with the author perhaps overexplaining her point throughout and both storylines felt a bit dragged out in the second half - but the writing is beautiful, both historical and futuristic settings are vivid and immersive (though the potential prescience of the events leading up to Derryn's not-too-distant world is chilling), I connected with and got invested in both protagonists, and the ending felt satisfying and deeply resonant.
