An audio book. Each chapter is headed by Location, Date and PoV (1st and 3rd person used). There's a large cast of people, which is further complicated by remarriages, big age gaps between spouses, early deaths of parents, adoptions, guardians, etc. The reviews say it's a sequel set 20 years after another book.
Evelyn Deveraux (married to Kit who's disfigured by war-time burns) has twins. An ex-Cambridge mathematician, she used to work at Bletchley Park.
Edmund, a doctor, is Evelyn's brother. He's married to Kit's sister, Hope, a successful children's author whose first husband, a German Jew, died of TB. He and Hope adopted a german relative, Annaliese, when she was 10 months. She's now a 24 year-old Oxford academic having an affair with married academic Harry.
Rominy is the stepmother of Hope, Kit and Arthur, a sucessful novelist who's in Hollywood meeting screenwriter Red. He seems brash and flirty. He may be insecurely avoiding disclosure of emotion. He lost a leg in the war. She, a widow, broke a leg in the war, saved from her crashed plane by Matteo, an Italian PoW, who she fell in love with. Rominy leaves Red early, unable to work with him.
Florence, a servant of Rominy for 20 years, is married to Billy. Billy's mother has never liked her.
Stanley was a 9 y.o. evacuee (brought up by Rominy) who stayed on and has become an architect. He designed Hope's new house set in 3 acres of land. His nasty mother died earlier in the year. He knows and regrets that Annaliese is out of his league.
Julia (ex-nurse) is Arthur's 3rd wife, and Ralph's step-mother. Ralph's enjoying himself after university and is short of money. Bad-tempered Arthur intercepted letters from Ralph's mother to Ralph, and send his and Julia's son Charles away to school as early as possible.
Isabella's an actress, recognised in the street. She's a cousin of Ralf, Rominy her guardian.
Hope, Florence and Evelyn get poison pen letters. Hope wonders if Arthur sent her the letter. Florence wonders whether hers was sent by her mother-in-law. Evelyn received a letter saying that Kit's not the father of the twins. The letter put all the recipients on edge.
In 1962 there's a family gathering in East Anglia to celebrate Evelyn and Kit's 20th. It's the time of the Cuban crisis and the Twist. Max, an old friend of Evelyn turns up. Annaliese overhears Evelyn ask Max if he sent the letter.
Hope is the victim of a hit-and-run. She's in a coma for weeks. People tell her things - confessions, almost. We learn later that Arthur (with Julia in the car) thought he'd hit a deer. He sticks to that story and makes Julia stick to it. He gets a doctor to drug her to keep her in the house.
Isabella and Ralph argue. While Isabella's ill, Max visits her.
Annaliese is pregnant. Harry doesn't want to leave his wife. Stanley offers to marry her.
Evelyn had indeed slept with Max, after her house-mate, who was spying for Germany, was found suspiciously hung in their garden. She slept with Kit soon after and married quickly, so she doesn't know who the twins' father is,
Rominy had slept with Matteo. They'd wanted to marry, but Matteo felt duty-bound to return to his wife and his unhappy, childless marriage. He hadn't known that Rominy was pregnant. She miscarried.
Out of the blue at Xmas, Red turns up at Rominy's. There's mutual attraction. He tells her that when he was shot down over France, the Resistance saved him but as a consequence several of the villagers were shot. Isabella and Max turn up at Rominy's unexpectedly. Max, 26 years older than Isabella, proposes and is accepted. Max later writes to Evelyn to tell her that he's sterile, so couldn't have been the twins' father. Red going home.
Ralph returns at Xmas. He reforms, not wanting to become like his father. He discovers that his father is having sex with the unpleasant Miss Casey who runs the house. He escapes with Julia and Charles. Arthur has a heart-attack on Boxing Day. Julia was submissive because her widower father took sexual advantage of her. Miss Casey, an ex-convict under another name, had stolen from bosses before. It's she who had written the nasty letter to married woman, through jealousy.
Rominy turns up at Red's unannounced and plans to stay.
Stanley's emigrating to Australia, unable to cope with Annaliese's proximity. Hope, Edmond and Annaliese plan a Grand Tour starting in Egypt. Hope and Edmund will bring up the child.
There are many small plots. Max and Ralph improve. The other baddies stay bad. Personality traits are often explained by some traumatic experience. "his temper simmering darkly in his eyes" and "She slows her speed to a crawling pace" might be clever phrasings, though on the face of it they don't impress.
Other reviews
- goodreads
- suesbookreviews (the novel consists of a lot of short chapters, with quite a few different subplots, many of them involving romantic and other relationships. I thought it was quite cleverly done, with some told in the first person that explain various secrets in people’s pasts. It was moving in places, shocking in others, and overall quite encouraging as several characters are able to come to terms, at last, with events from their past. )
- fictionophile (at first I was cast adrift by this novel due to the vast amount of characters ... With elements of historical fiction, romance, and even mystery, this novel will be greatly appreciated by all who enjoy compelling women’s fiction.)
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