- A brilliant and exhilarating novel that creates magic out of the mundane. One of the best novels I’ve read this year, and easily the best Australian one.
- Dalgarno submerges us deep into the ordinary lives of a working class family in Scotland. There's nothing that distinguishes them other than their deep love for one another despite occasional tensions. Margaret and Henry live in a council flat and have two twin daughters Rachel and Eva.
- We span the decades from after World War II to 2021, and although the 'Living Margaret' dies in 2014, the 'Dead Margaret' revisits key events over that period and reflects on them. It doesn't take long as a reader to get used to that authorial device, in fact to love it, as her voice has a gentle touch, and she's a charming and sensitive woman. Like Dante, she reflects, ‘I’m on a divine mission’. (She ain't that divine however - in 2021, during Covid, she doesn’t know why people are wearing masks or social distancing!).
- We're told the daughters grow up and have relationships and children of their own. Rachel moves to Australia and Eva to Spain. I use the words 'we're told' deliberately. Dalgarno provides a shocking reveal at the end that throws a whole new light on everything that comes before. I reread chapter after chapter and was, once again, utterly transfixed by his genius.
- Read this and revel in the delicious prose and storytelling.
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