Loved the language Perkins used - the beginning paragraph is absolutely beautiful and evokes a real sense of loss and love for Tom's late wife.

I would have preferred a few things to be made a little clearer by the end - several parts are left as loose ends, causing me to flip back through the book to check I hadn't missed anything. ( )

Spooky and dark and impending doom the entire time.
Tom Stone is madly in love with his wife Ann. They have recently bought a house in up and coming Hackney, London even though Tom is a failing screenwriter, and Ann has a part time job in a hospital in London. However, they need more space as Ann is soon to be having their first child.
I loved that that the book is told from Tom's perspective (and that the book is written by the talented Emily Perkins) and from the opening page, we know that Ann is dead.
However, it is all a little murky -- sort of like the entire novel is written with an opaque cloth around it. Much is left unsaid and unexplained.
I found the prose to be well-written, tight and well developed character study of a couple's life which is slowly falling apart. ( )

This is the first book I have read by this author and I have to admit I only picked it up because of the very striking cover photograph. However I am very glad that I did because the story is excellent, well-written, thought-provoking and compelling right to the end.

It is not, however, a feel-good book. It has a gloom and and air of desperation cast over the story right from the start and although I would like to re-read this book it isn't one to read while you are feeling down and could bring you down even if you were quite cheerful when you started it.

Australian Ann Wells and her partner Tom Stone are expecting their first child together. However Tom has just lost his job and they have bought a house in preparation for the baby coming. Their mounting debts are scary enough but there are mysterious problems with the house, infestations of insects and vermin, Ann is involved in a serious accident and is being stalked by a homeless man. There is a mugging and a roadrage attack. There is mystery about the way Tom lost his job and Tom himself, as the narrator of the story, tells us a devestating fact about Ann right at the start of the story.

The confusion continues right through the book and as a reader I was left hazy about details that Tom is well aware of but chooses not to explain. It is a well written story, planned and well thought out and the confusion that remains is fully intended by the author.

I will re-read this book and think it is the sort of book that might have more to reveal on a second read. I would cautiously recommend it but warn you that it is hard going in parts because of the tone of the story. ( )

http://wanderingcoyote.blogspot.com/2... ( )