A wonderfully observed family drama set in an old house in the country, where four siblings get together with various spouses, offspring, friends in tow. There are clearly a lot of family tensions bubbling under from day one, so you have to wonder what's going to happen over their planned three week stay in their grandparents; former abode.
Over the course of their reunion, the past repeatedly raises its head in various forms. Secrets emerge in their many varied forms. It does feel a little contrived that they ALL bring some serious and unique baggage to the table, but the baggage makes the story what it is, so it's a small complaint, as the story really is truly engrossing and compelling, as the cracks appear and the truths bubble up.
The characters are richly drawn and you end up feeling like part of the family by the end of the novel, although I'm not entirely sure it's a family you'd want to be a part of! A great read.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

Three sisters and a brother meet up in their grandparents’ old house for three long, hot summer weeks. The house is full of memories of their childhood and their past -- their mother took them there when she left their father – but now they may have to sell it. And under the idyllic surface, there are tensions.
Roland has come with his new wife and his sisters don’t like her. Kasim, the twenty-year-old son of Alice’s ex-boyfriend, makes plans to seduce Molly, Roland’s teenage daughter. Fran’s children uncover an ugly secret in a ruined cottage in the woods. Passion erupts where it’s least expected, blasting the quiet self-possession of Harriet, the oldest sister. A way of life – bourgeois, literate, ritualised – winds down to its inevitable end.

When I read the blurb for this, I was just a little been keen on it. Family reunions and secret revelations are usually good fodder for fiction. Always opportunities for sibling rivalries and fights, passions and greed to come to the fore. That was what I was expecting...

...it is not what I got...

What I did get was a bunch of whiny adults who seemed to be having a game of "Let's see who can outdo the others in boring the reader to death with their memories." That is essentially what I took from this book. No real plot - just overly dramatic character studies that were quite dull, if the truth be told.

Also, punctuation was created for a reason. Use them inverted commas for what they were intended. That style of using a dash for the start of dialogue isn't clever - it's pretentious.


Paul
ARH