Thoughtfully, Caroline Overington releases her annual novel on my birthday. I’ve always found this to be a delightful case of serendipity because it means I can spend the October long weekend immersed in some of the best fiction I have ever read.
I start a lot of books. A lot. Do you?
The part I struggle with is those first few chapters of a book where – even if you are enjoying it – you need to invest time in getting to know the characters and slipping comfortably into the author’s writing style.
Often, I never get past those first few chapters. My bedside table is like a graveyard for books I’m yet to finish.
And then there are Caroline’s books.
When a new one arrives (this is her third, there’s also the gripping Ghost Child and the magnificent I Came To Say Goodbye) I often will pick it up and quickly flick to the first page to see what it’s like. And then within the first sentence I literally have to put my life on hold and surrender to the extraordinary way she has of transporting you into the minds and lives of her characters.
I read Caroline’s books standing up. I take them to the bathroom with me – that’s how engrossed I become.
Like her last book, Matilda Is Missing is narrated by an older man. How a young woman like Caroline can so perfectly channel the speech of an elderly man is a mystery to me but by God she does. It’s a beautiful, emotional, illuminating read. It tells the story of a relationship breakdown – actually a few of them – from the points of view of the heart-broken, angry and bewildered characters who are so real as to spark off the page. It’s a contemporary tale of the family court but told with such insight that comes from her career as a journalist covering some of the most difficult cases you can imagine.
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The Spill
