The White Octopus Hotel by Alexandra Bell
The White Octopus Hotel follows Eve Shaw, a solitary art appraiser living in London in 2015, whose life is upended when she meets Max Everly, a silver haired visitor who shares the name of her favourite long dead composer. Their strange connection leads Eve into the mysterious White Octopus Hotel in the Swiss Alps, a grand belle époque building that exists in 1935 yet seems to bend time itself. Within its shifting corridors she encounters a younger Max, and the two realise they are linked by loss, trauma and a pull that spans decades. The hotel becomes a crossroads where past and present touch, offering both of them the possibility of healing and of finding the courage to face the truths they have long avoided.
In short, this is a beautifully crafted tale that invites readers to step through its doors and discover how love, loss and time can shape the paths we choose.
