- Caro Llewellyn has written a lovely, delicious, paean to the publishing industry. Set in Sydney, Melbourne and New York it is a story of personal relationships and secret histories. People can love and care, but they can also deeply hurt and betray, parents included.
- The book has a charm from the word go. Wet Melbourne streets, the leaves, the restaurants (Melbourne's much loved The European especially) all feature in multiple and enmeshed stories that are simply captivating.
- The prime focus is the editor Edna and her passionate relationship with a famous (unnamed unfortunately) English author who is now living in New York. His wife and five-year-old daughter were killed by a speeding car when he was young man. He and Edna exchange affectionate emails every day.
- Her parents 'abandoned' her, and she feels pangs of guilt. Her mother died when Edna was a child and her father shot himself a decade later. Edna departed Australia and found a job in NY as an editor at Random House. She attends the Frankfurt Book Fair, giving us a great description of it. And of course she meets up with her author/lover. They travel to Rome and indulge in its food and architectural glory.
- As readers we glide between timeframes and cities. And we also meet Molly, an Australian book editor whose mother was called Edna. Edna died of Multiple Sclerosis when Molly was five. The echoes are ominous.
- Molly settles in New York and meets Giancarlo, an Italian chef. They becomes lovers and longtime partners. She contemplates at one point: ‘how much literary business is done in the presence of food and wine’. Delicious food and whiskey and champagne are central in their lives.
- Molly is reading the early chapters of a manuscript of a memoir that had been sent to her by literary agent Elaine Grimes. Grimes had died a few months earlier. Unfortunately the name of the author was never disclosed. But Molly is deeply affected by it and is eager to find her.
- We know the memoir was written by Edna. And eventually Molly discovers that. Edna is currently in a nursing home suffering from MS. They eventually meet but Edna refuses to give her the full manuscript. However they talk for hours and bond with each other. Molly tells her about her career and her love for Giancarlo. Edna softens and hints she will complete it and gift it to her.
- Edna dies a few weeks later and Molly receives the completed memoir.
- The novel's ending is a gut-punch. It upends so much of what Molly and we as readers were led to believe.
- This book is just so excellent on every level. One of the best I've read over the last few years.
(The cover is disappointing. The model doesn’t look intelligent and looks bored. The very opposite of Edna).
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