"The Blind Light" by Stuart Evers

2019. At a farm? He + elder sister? Where are the Carters? Nate and sister Anneka. 40 years..

1959. Gwen opens the pub. Her family live upstairs. Nick the poet is a regular. Drummond (nicknamed "drum" then "horse" because of his genitals) is on army training. There are empty houses used for training. He and Gwen become friends. Carter (sent down from Oxford, fiancee Daphne) befriends him.

1962. Gwen and Drum have a daughter, Anneka (Anna). Gwen's moved away from her family and hasn't been back since Anneka's birth. The Cuban crisis is on. They drive 6 hours to visit Carter and Daphne who have a child Johnny. Carter has told Drum that their big house has a nuclear bunker in the cellar.

1971. Gwen is a librarian. Her latest child Nate is 6. She's been having an affair with Ray, a political writer who's been doing research. We later learn that they never kissed. Carter and Drum (who's on strike) meet, Carter as usual slipping him money. Carter offers to let them stay in the neighbouring farm. They move, becoming farmers.

Daphne knows that Carter's unfaithful. Gwen reads Ray’s book, and fantasises about him.

1977. When Anna's 16 she goes to a party. Johnny tells her father Drum about it. He’s angry.

1980. Anna flops 3 A levels though she was Oxbridge material. There’s a war alert. They all go into the bunker for a night or two. Anna has a nightmare (or Johnny tried to rape her). It’s just a drill. She leaves home, not staying in touch.

Nate’s gay. He’s taking over the farm. He thinks nobody knows, but Johnny does. He also knows where Anna is. On TV there’s a drama which shows the drill scenes. Is Anna the actress?

1991 – Anne is with Robin (Nigerian, talks about politics) in London. She’s had 2 miscarriages. She’s a social worker. Johnny goes to Oxford University, marries and has a child.

Gwen (who thinks she might be pregnant but it's the menopause) asks Ray to track down Anna. He does. She might be pregnant. Gwen doesn't ask for her address. They decide to meet up again.

There are IRA bombs and 9/11. The family's safe, but Drum wonders whether they'd been safer in the mutually assured destruction days.

Nate has married and divorced, losing the job that his father-in-law had given him. He has a step-child and a child. Johnny borrowed all Carter's money and lost it all. Carter asks Drum for a loan. Drum agrees, on condition that Carter gives Drum the farm. The two of them visit a library about the Nuclear test drills and discover that there were fatal consequences for some families.

Anna has a child, Femi, who likes Buzz Lightyear. Ray was injured by a motorbike once when he was checking on her (she saw the accident). Carter is living in Spain.

2012. Carter has had a triple heart bypass just in time. He's still having affairs. Drum has been given 6 months to live (not a 4 minute warning). While he's in a hospice for a week (respite care), Gwen drives hours to spy on Anna and family from a distance, Femi playing football. She and Anna talk. Anna's told her family that her parents are dead. She tells Gwen that Drum was a tyrant, that Gwen's come to "lay on the guilt", that she won't go to any funerals. Afterwards, Anna feels guilty. Near his death, Anna visits. They forgive each other. Carter gives Drum a final shave.

2017 - Anna's re-integrating with family. Femi, offered Oxbridge, choses Manchester. Gwen has a stroke. Johnny wants to move into Gwen's farm but discovers that Gwen owns it. He offers to buy it but Anna turns the generous offer down in revenge.

Lots of oral sex, bouts of anaphora and extracts from convenient essays. I'm not sure that the soccer-related sections are needed, and there are other episodes that add little. I prefer his stories.

Other reviews

• Clare Clark(Evers is excellent on the fine grain of friendship. ... He is less certain of his ground when it comes to plot. The different sections of the novel have an immersive granularity that allows them to unfold almost in real time but the structure by which he connects them across six decades is clumsy and, on occasion, melodramatic. ... Evers’s periodically overworked prose is also a distraction. He can and frequently does write with a lovely lucidity, even lyricism, but too often he adopts an irritatingly mannered style.)
• Kirkus reviews(Despite a handful of emotionally affecting scenes and some well-drawn characters, the novel feels overlong given its dearth of narrative momentum.)