The Museum of Broken Promises by Elizabeth Buchan

Author : Elizabeth Buchan
Title : The Museum of Broken Promises
Published : 2019
Publisher : Corvus
Pages : 416
Genre : Contemporary / Historical Fiction

     Paris, today. The Museum of Broken Promises is a place of wonder and sadness, hope and loss. Every object in the museum has been donated - a cake tin, a wedding veil, a baby's shoe. And each represents a moment of grief or terrible betrayal. The museum is a place where people come to speak to the ghosts of the past and, sometimes, to lay them to rest. Laure, the owner, and curator, has also hidden artifacts from her own painful youth amongst the objects on display.  Prague, 1985. Recovering from the sudden death of her father, Laure flees to Prague. But life behind the Iron Curtain is a complex thing: drab and grey yet charged with danger. Laure cannot begin to comprehend the dark, political currents that run beneath the surface of this communist city. Until, that is, she meets a young dissident musician. Her love for him will have terrible and unforeseen consequences. It is only years later, having created the museum, that Laure can finally face up to her past and celebrate the passionate love which has directed her life.

     I think this is one of those books you pick up just because the title sounds so intriguing. The museum of broken promises sounds like a place you would want to spend hours exploring. Digging through its secrets and finding out about people you will never meet. As I dug deeper into its premises I realized that this book would take me a lot deeper into an area had not been expecting. I think for most the events of the cold war are something that exists mostly in nonfiction books and spy novels. But here it would seem the author tackled it on a much more personal level. Perhaps something each of us can relate to a little more. 

     I really liked that we got to meet Laure at two very different points in her life. It gave me a much greater understanding of her as a whole. When we first meet her she displays all the attributes of a twenty-something abroad. Wide-eyed and innocent, the world behind the iron curtain is a harsh reminder that not everyone in the world is as free as she is. When we jump forward to the present she has become someone much more pressed down by the world. A woman who has seen her fair share of suffering and heartache. Maybe this is also all part of growing older, we see more limitations rather than opportunities. We amass regrets which in turn stop us from changing and taking leaps of faith. What I would say is that Buchan has done a remarkable job of bringing to life one woman in two very different ways. Each felt real to me and there is maybe a little of us to discover in both old and young Laure. 

     Having finished the book I still maintain this should be a real place. A museum to house all the might have and should have been's. In the present day setting the author makes it sound like such a magical yet sad place to inhabit. I have this image in my mind of every nook and cranny and of the time I will never spend there. And back into the past we get a glimpse into communist-era Prague. This is a very different city to the one I visited a good few years back. It's funny in a strange way as you see the state's tentacles reaching out in both small and big ways. Always pulling at every aspect of the people's lives. Even with the first few steps of what should be a great love story, you are left with an oppressive feeling. This deep melancholy that sinks into every fiber of the city and it's inhabitants. But as with all of us, when we are young there seems to be no limit to what we can do and no obstacle we can't overcome. 

     For me, this was a truly beautiful story to get my self wrapped up in. There is despair and hope, regret and longing, mystery and intrigue. Laure is someone that I ended up feeling a deep connection with. As the pages turned and I got to know her all the better she becomes less the written word and more flesh and blood. Her mistakes and hopes could easily have been any one of ours. For this was a magical book and one that will stay with me for a long time.