I really enjoyed Kit de Waal's first book so I was looking forward to reading this one.

Although totally different from 'My Name is Leon' the author has a real talent for creating slightly quirky characters that the reader immediately warms to and cares about from the start.

Mona is sixty years old. She is a doll maker. Every doll has it's own back story, name, wardrobe and in special cases, weight. We follow Mona from her childhood in Ireland, growing up & moving to the 1970's Birmingham and enjoying the buzz of the big city. Enjoying staying in a busy boarding house and falling in love with shy William.

Throughout the story we know that there is a tragic event that befell Mona and gradually it is revealed.

This is a beautiful book that will stay with me for long time. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this lovely book

Leaving her home in rural Ireland in the 1970s Mona moves to Birmingham where she quickly finds love with William, a fellow Irish boy. Married and quickly pregnant Mona settles into a life of domesticity but all her dreams are taken away from her when her baby is stillborn and William suffers a breakdown. Fastforward forty years and Mona now leaves in a seaside town and runs a toyshop but she also helps those who have lost babies. However as Mona is wooed by a sophisticated German she thinks about her life and her future.

I really enjoyed de Waal first novel and I completely fell in love with this book, Kit de Waal is developing into a truly brilliant writer. I found the book slow at first but that is part of the charm of it, it gently woos the reader with the contrasting tales of Mona in modern times and the naive country girl from Ireland. The emotions around loss, both of stillborn babies and mental health are raw and beautifully expressed. I loved the fact that almost forty years of detail was actually left out and the twist at the end was unexpected yet felt so right.

I absolutely loved this book and couldn't put it down- what an emotional rollercoaster.You can so empathise with Mona over the loss of a much wanted baby . Then she used her own sense of loss and talents to help others in a similar position showing that ,no matter how much time has passed by,the emotions can still be quite raw.Through this she stiill maintains her love for the man who swept her off her feet all those years ago - what a passionate and enduring love that was . I must admit i half guessed the identity of 'the carpenter'and was happy to be proved right.Wondeful.I loved her first book .This was so different. - can't wait for the next and will certinly be buying this one for gifts

This book flits a little but between different times so requires concentration however the story is really good and enjoyable and something you can empathise with throughout

Having enjoyed, but not been blown away by, the author's last novel, I wasn't sure what to expect with this one. In the event it was completely different - I would have thought it was by another author if I didn't know it wasn't. Beautifully written and achingly haunting, I found this an profoundly moving (and cathartic!) read. Anyone who has suffered loss, particularly of a child, prepare to weep! If I'm to be picky, I found the 'twist' at the end a little predictable, and not remotely necessary, but it didn't detract from my pleasure in the slightest. I look forward to Ms De Wahl's next book.

Having read "My name is Leon", I was interested to see what else Kit de Waal would come up with. This novel is excellent, drawing into the protagonists lives, and making you very aware how difficult it is for all when a baby is stillborn.
Mona is a small town Irish girl who goes to England to find work. There she meets William, an Irish navvy whom she falls in love with.. The book moves backwards and forwards in time, and leads you into extreme emotion, and familial support networks.
In the present Mona meets a German gentleman, who seems t have feelings for her, but she appears to have feelings for the mysterious carpenter. She makes dolls for a living, but also tries to help women who have had a stillbirth, by getting the carpenter to make a form weighing the same as their dead baby, and talking about it movingly.
This book urges you on and on, and the twist at the end is unexpected, but still joyous.

The Trick to Time is a beautifully written book that carried me on a wave of emotion from the very first page. The novel flits between the past and the present, telling Mona's story. The subject matter is dealt with sensitively and the feelings of love, loss and grief are portrayed beautifully. I loved this book.
I received a copy of this novel from the publisher, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hmmm I really did go to ditch this book on several occasions as I really did not know where it was going most of the time, but I persevered as I thought that at any moment, the mystery would be revealed and I would actually understand what was going on. Sadly this book failed to impress me and I was totally disappointed that I had indeed persevered.

Mona is a dollmaker, but not just an ordinary dollmaker - she makes dolls to help woman who have suffered pain and devastation on the death of their newborn baby. The story begins as she is celebrating her 60th birthday. The book goes back and forth from the past to the present and tells of Mona's life from when she met the love of her life, William and the tragedy that led her into the life she is now leading. I do think it was well written but for me it just lacked something to give it that little bit extra uumph. Thanks to Netgalley for ARC in return for this honest review.

This novel provides its own trick to time, not only with varying time perspectives but also because time itself seems to contract while reading such a compelling story about love and loss.


I soon warmed to the protagonist, Mona. She’s a sympathetically drawn, well-rounded character, who experiences the vagaries of life and love, including the pivotal tragic event of losing a child. An awful tragedy that greatly impacts the rest of her life and affects her relationships with others.

She tentatively begins to open up to the possibility of love again, indulging in a brief flirtation with The General. He lives in a block of flats overlooking her home and they connect through their mutual nocturnal wakefulness. But he isn't quite as straightforward or charming as he seems on the surface.

Much of the book's gentle humour arises from situations of pathos, where vulnerability is depicted with tender grace. And there are honest insights into the flawed humanity we can all recognise.

Mona's experiences enable her to minister to other hurting, bereaved mothers. She is aided in this service by her carpenter friend, who makes the lifelike dolls that become the means of them opening up to speak about their loss.

He’s a rather shadowy figure, who also has hidden secrets, which slowly unfold when Mona, having been let down by her new beau, looks after him when he is sick. Later, they both have to decide whether or not to face up to the past and move forward together.

I was touched by this cleverly written, poignant story and entranced by the poetic, pared back prose. An air of mystery is retained as it comes to a close. I loved it. A great one for fans of Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine.

The second novel can always be a difficult one, especially when your first has been hugely successful and critically acclaimed. Many authors fail dismally or its simply just not as good, whilst a very few write a novel that transcends and exceeds. Kit De Waal is, in my opinion, one of the few that has written a novel better than her first. The Trick To Time, is just superb and this is why.

Lets start with the main character, Mona. We first meet Mona in a seaside town where she makes and sells wooden dolls in her small shop. Approaching sixty she is without a husband and even with a small group of friends you can sense that she is lonely. Unable to sleep well at nights she catches glimpses of a man in the flats across from her and a chance meeting sees them spending time together. It unravels a myriad of emotions in Mona as she wonders if this is what she really wants and slowly in flashbacks we learn Mona’s story.

We read of Mona’s Irish background, the death of her beloved mother, the closeness between herself and her father, and her escape to Birmingham with the promise of a more exciting life. There is happiness when she meets, falls in love and marries William before tragedy strikes. This is where the story really began and where I had to make sure I had a tissue to hand as I read.

De Waal takes us on a veritable emotional rollercoaster. There is love, loss and grief told in a narrative that pulls you in, and really makes you care for these characters, especially Mona.

Mona is hardy, strong and incredibly brave with a huge capacity for love, forgiveness and compassion. She is beautifully crafted with so much depth, so many layers that I could not help but feel a huge connection with her, one that I very rarely find in the many novels that I read.

I could clearly sense and feel her inner turmoil and anguish and hoped against hope that all would be well.

Supporting characters added humour as well as triggered memories. I particularly liked De Waal’s portrayal of the carpenter, the maker of Mona’s dolls. There was something haunting and sorrowful about him, the relationship between Mona and himself always business like until the odd touch or gesture hinted at something more.

What made this novel so special was De Waal’s ability to capture the emotion and mental torment of the characters and convey to us, the reader, in a way that was both captivating and poignant. The issues of mental health and grief are treated with a real understanding and sensitivity, the prose never overplayed, striking just the right note. There are some scenes that are incredibly moving and I was in absolute bits towards the end.

Don’t let the fact that The Trick To Time is a sad novel put you off, because you will seriously miss out on what is a beautifully written story that will stay with you for a very long time.

I have my fingers crossed that it will make the shortlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Thank you to Viking and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review.

About the author

Image result for kit de waal the trick to time

Kit de Waal, born to an Irish mother and Caribbean father, was brought up among the Irish community of Birmingham in the 60’s and 70’s. Her debut novel My Name Is Leon was an international bestseller, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, long-listed for the Desmond Elliott Prize and won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award for 2017.

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Posted on March 29, 2018
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I love it when a novel surprises me. I’m not specifically talking plot twists – although, this book does have a big one towards the end which I didn’t anticipate. It’s more that feeling when I’m reading a book and the writing is fine, but I’m not sure I see the point of the story. But then it gets to a section where it emotionally grips me and breaks my heart and pieces it back together bit by bit. The best example of this I always go back to is Colm Tóibín’s “Brooklyn” which made me flip and fall in love with it halfway through. But now I can say the same about Kit De Waal “The Trick of Time”. This novel slides effortlessly between the early and later life of Mona, a girl from Ireland who eventually moves to England and spends many years making elegant handcrafted dolls as well as emotionally assisting bereaved women in their grieving process. It’s a deceptively simple story that makes big statements about loss, relationships and the power imagination can play in rescuing us from the ravages of time.

One way this novel really pulled on my heart strings was by portraying some characters who are outwardly “difficult” but their prickliness is really a defensive guise shielding hidden psychological pain. A woman named Sarah visits Mona at one point and, though she is quite rude and dismissive, Mona persists in helping her because both women have experienced a similar sense of loss and Mona can sense how much she’s in pain. This astute, empathetic manner is really touching, but it’s also enlivening to read about a character like Mona who is so essentially good that she’d selflessly give her time and attention to someone else rather than become embittered by her own anger and despair. This is something I found so striking about another novel I read recently called “The Ninth Hour”.

This novel also meaningfully engages with a question I’ve grappled with a lot in my life. It’s difficult not to let ourselves become preoccupied with thoughts about what might have been if we’d made different life choices or if chance had made us take a different path in life. Usually I’ve felt that getting lost in such musings is counterproductive as its taking you out of your immediate existence or the moment you’re living in. But this novel posits a different slant on this issue. Early in Mona’s life her father explains to her that there is a trick to time and throughout the book there are multiple examples of how people can indulge in imaginatively building alternate timelines for themselves – not necessarily as ways of escaping real life, but overcoming grief which feels otherwise insurmountable. So when Mona’s mother is very ill she engages her daughter in picturing how Mona’s life might play our or when a neighbour named Karl takes Mona to an antique fair they engage in playful musings about a luxurious lifestyle where the furniture around them fills an imagined stately home. It feels like this way of allowing ourselves to be manipulated by fantasy and the imagination can be a way of building a stronger sense of self as it allows us to simultaneously inhabit all the multiplicities of life.

I also really appreciated how this novel frankly deals with the subject of miscarriage in such a complex and moving way. It’s always felt to me like a somewhat taboo subject that’s not often talked about or perhaps it’s something I’ve never been that aware of as a man who has never been with a pregnant partner. But several years ago I was startled to find that some women close to me had experienced miscarriages which I hadn’t previously known about. It’s entirely understandable that something so sensitive isn’t brought up except in certain contexts and, of course, this is why many pregnant women don’t tell many people about their pregnancy until a certain stage, but it feels important that there’s more dialogue about something which can have long-term emotional consequences. “The Trick of Time” handles this beautifully and in such an effective way. I was entirely engrossed in the novel and moved by its very touching ending.

If I can summarise the book very shortly, I can tell it's emotionally moving and heart breaking. It's very well written, touched your heart.
Mona is our main character, who falls in love with William at a very young age, and they get married. We start listening to the story from her when she's stepping into her 60th birthday and she's reflecting on her past. We go back and forth to different periods of her life and try to bring the pieces together to learn about her current state. She runs a doll shop and also helps women cope with tragic losses, knowing what it is herself. I love books in which we go back and forth in time to complete a story. So, I enjoyed it s lot. And I enjoyed De Waal's writing a lot. It was beautiful and moving. I didn't see the twist at the end of the book. That was a big surprise for me, which I thought was very clever. I loved Mona as a character.
The only criticism I have for the book is, it felt a bit incomplete by not knowing the story from William's side. I really would have loved to know more of what he's been through and how he ended up where he did. I felt it was a bit disorganised and there were gaps where we could get more out of the story completing the picture.
But, overall, I really liked the book and Mona's story.
Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin publishers for granting a copy in exchange for an honest review.

‘There’s a trick to time […] You can make it expand or you can make it contract. Make it shorter or longer,’ he says.

The Trick to Time begins in the present day in a southern seaside town. Mona, nearing 60, runs a shop from which she paints, dresses and sells collectible dolls. Before the end of the first chapter it becomes clear that some of these dolls serve a particular purpose. A woman arrives with a carefully wrapped parcel; she’s grieving:

‘I’ll tell you what, let me give you this.’ Mona takes a business card from the counter and writes her address on the back. ‘That’s me. Shall we say next Wednesday at 4.00 p.m.? Would that suit you?’ The woman nods and Mona smiles. ‘I just need the weight.’

The woman’s voice is a whisper when she speaks. ‘Five pounds seven ounces,’ she says and looks around as though she’s told a secret.

The dolls Mona paints and dresses are made by a local carpenter. She collects them from his workshop every few days. Their conversations suggest they have a working relationship but Mona’s observations show she worries about him too. He lives alone in the workshop and is haphazard at taking care of himself.

Alongside the now, de Waal contracts time and tells the story of Mona’s youth and young adulthood. In these sections of the novel we see her grow up in a small Irish town, raised by her father after her mum dies of cancer. In 1972, she leaves for Birmingham and meets William who, after a short courtship, she marries.

The Trick to Time considers the impact events that happen when we are younger have on our lives as we get older; how our desires and youthful optimism can be eroded, and how we can either weave these events into a new version of life or allow them to dominate it. This is exemplified by two of the minor characters, Karl and Bridie, as well as Mona.

Karl, who Mona spots looking out of his flat window at 5 a.m., is grief stricken after his friend Andreas’ death. Mona begins dating him after they bump into each other in a café; he becomes a catalyst for change in her.

Bridie lives in the village near Mona and her father. They visit her every month.

‘Why doesn’t she visit us instead?’ asks Mona. She is fourteen.

‘Good question,’ her father replies as though he’d never thought of it before.

‘At least then I could do some mending or shell the peas while she has the clock stopped.’

Her father laughs and squeezes her arm in close. ‘Ah, she’s a conjuror all right is Bridie O’Connor. I’ve never known a longer hour. But.’

And his ‘but’ says everything. Mona knows the words that come after. But she’s family, sort of, and she loves you. But she’s lonely. But she lives alone. But it’s the right thing to do. But we have to think of more people than ourselves alone. But have a heart, Mona.

In her debut novel My Name Is Leon, de Waal examined the difficulties of working class, single motherhood and the care system for children of colour with diligence and without descending into sentimentality. In The Trick to Time she applies the same focus to grief, compelling the reader to invest in these characters and their lives, taking us to the dark places which have shaped who they’ve become. There are points where the novel is difficult to read but it isn’t without hope; sometimes the control of time is ours.

Mona is a 59 year old Irish woman living in England, as she faces changes in her life, meeting neighbour Karl, and a milestone birthday, she reflects on her life and a series of traumatic events that have led to where she is now.

The Trick to Time deals with grief, longing, loss and how people cope with these, questioning what it means to move on and 'live' our lives. It is a compelling narrative, flashing back to Mona's youth in Ireland and young adulthood in England. There is a mystery at the heart of the novel about what has happened to Mona; though this becomes relatively easy to deduce as the novel moves forward, the reader continues to elicit more and more detail throughout. It is no surprise that as Mona's young adult life takes place in 1970s Birmingham, the IRA features tying the novel to a specific historical moment. 

However, far from a socio-political narrative, the book is focused on the issues of individuals, the struggles of Mona and her new husband William. Moreover these individuals are well rounded and endearing - it is easy to sympathise with Mona while she navigates a new relationship with the charming Karl, or to smile at the kindness of Gayle or Mona's other friends. 

For a novel which deals with the complex topics that de Waal touches on - which very much deal with female experiences and ones not often explored within literature, I was disappointed by a few oversights. There is entrenched sexism in many of the interactions which go unchallenged and I found it difficult to come to terms with the main plot twist. At least on this occasion, the character of the doctor voiced my perspective, but short of this passing remark the complexities of what happens go unexplored. 

Perhaps de Waal simply wants to challenge us with this concept - though considering the novel's conclusion I found this frustrating. It was difficult to imagine that scenario would take place, especially with a woman such as Mona, who is clearly a tenacious and ambitious woman, who takes no nonsense in her relationship with Karl for example. 

The book was an intense exploration of how trauma can affect people's lives, with interesting plot twists and a gripping narrative. As such it was an enjoyable read, albeit an emotional one. 

I received this book as an advanced reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review; all opinions are my own.

The resilience of the human spirit

Mona is approaching sixty and has carved out a life for herself, in a small seaside town, hand making dolls and selling them in her gift shop. She also provides a mystery service for young women who have lost babies in childbirth. Her life is pleasant but unexciting until she meets the dapper General who lives in the flats across from her. She doesn’t really know what she expects or even wants from their meetings, but she feels a frisson beyond her comfortable routine.

In 1972 Mona left her home in Ireland and travelled to Birmingham for a better life. She lost her mother to cancer when she was a child and, although very close to her father, there is no future for her in Ireland. In Birmingham, she rents a room in a boarding house and finds a job in a factory, and after several months meets the engaging William. They fall in love and marry and soon she is pregnant.

Back to the present and Mona has a way of coping with everything life throws at her, her ‘trick to time’.

This is an enjoyable novel about ordinary people in an ordinary town; ambition and dreams have passed them by and they accept their lot and make the best of it. The character of Mona is attractive to those of us of a certain age who can relate to her current life and you find yourself rooting for her to find something more.

The other characters exist really to hang Mona’s life on and to highlight her strength and resilience.

Well written, this is just the book for a wet weekend, curled up with a mug of cocoa or a glass of wine.

Pashtpaws

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

I may have cried a little, this is a real heart wrencher and deals beautifully with grief, loss and the fear of exposure to pain. It's set in a period I haven't read much in novels before so I found that really interesting and well written. It's a great love story, and well worth a read.

The book moves between past and present as Mona comes over to the UK from Ireland and starts her own family. In the present day she helps bereaved mothers come to terms with their loss in quite an unusual way, but she also needs to come to terms with her own past before she can move on.
Mona's story isn't spectacular or unusual, but is told in such a way that really resonated with me.I can sometimes struggle to engage with a book told in the third person, but this book manages to pack quite the punch, albeit in a really gentle way, and I was surprised to find myself having a little cry at certain points.
Thanks go to the publishers and net galley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

I was worried Kit de Waal wouldn’t be able to write a book as poignant and moving as ‘My Name is Leon’, but I needn’t have worried. ‘The Trick to Time’ is beautifully written and is the story of Mona, a woman who has just turned sixty and has arrived at a crossroads in her life. The story moves seamlessly from Mona’s past life in Ireland to the Birmingham of the seventies, right up until the present day.

The subject matter of child loss is a difficult one and (one I have personal family experience of), but in the skilful hands of Kit de Waal it is handled with the sensitivity it deserves. Mona’s story is poignant without being overly sentimental and leads to an unexpected denouement that I found incredibly moving.

A beautiful book that may be a difficult read for some. A memorable 4.5 stars.

I recently read The Trick to Time by Kit de Waal, if I could sum this book up in a few words it would be that it is an incredibly moving story and at times heartbreaking. Using a parallel timeline, we follow Mona on the eve of her 60th birthday as she reflects on her past. She runs a doll shop and also helps women cope with tragic losses; something she's too familiar with. Some may dislike reading two timelines at once but I personally enjoyed it and find that each event complements another. It also shows the power of the story as I was willing younger Mona's path to change even though I knew the eventual outcome.  There is a twist at the end of the book which took me by surprise which I'm sure was the aim.  There's the reoccurring theme of missed chances throughout the novel with the story of Bridie back in Ireland and Mona's potential suitor Karl. It's a very thought-provoking novel and I feel it deals with the subject of loss very well. Setting part of it during the IRA bombing in Birmingham was a good touch, highlighting how Irish immigrants during this time in Britain would have felt. I would definitely recommend this book but would be wary as it does deal with the loss of children.

This book is a delight from start to finish. It’s fairly petite at just 272 pages and I devoured it in a day such is its morish storytelling.

Fans of Kit de Waal’s first book My Name is Leon might be surprised by the flavour of her second novel. While My Name is Leon was full of heart and childlike innocence, The Trick to Time is on another level of narrative and emotional maturity.

The plot follows Mona’s life and unravels the everyday tragedies that befall her. Those tragedies aren’t extravagant or particularly extraordinary but their impact is life-altering. De Waal beautifully captures how Mona carries on in the face of devastation and describes the unique collection of tools she uses to cope with her experiences. I was left considering the efficacy of Mona’s mechanisms and how I might cope with such occurrences in my own life.

The trick to time of the title is a lesson learned from Mona’s father who suggests we can stretch and bend time in order to craft the past or futures we desire. Mona’s use of the trick is heartbreakingly tender when we see her create the scenes of what could have been.

De Waal’s writing was immediately in good company in my mind. Mona’s doll shop reminded me of Angela Carter’s The Magic Toyshop while the fluid chronology of the chapters evokes the narrative manipulation of Kate Atkinson. The storytelling is beautifully done and it kept me guessing until the end.

The Trick to Time is a poignant look at one woman’s life and how she copes with the gut-wrenching events she encounters. I was emotionally hooked from the first few pages and De Waal has lost none of the tenderness she introduced us to in My Name in Leon; in fact, she’s surpassed it.

This is a confident but delicate book that will utterly absorb your senses. I’m still reeling from its emotional journey and know I will read this again and again and again.