Isobel Fairfax is a sixteen-year-old girl whose mother mysteriously disappeared when she was a child. She and her brother want to understand what happened and frantically search for clues. But gradually, Isobel becomes caught in bizarre time shifts, moving between the present and the past, and between real events and completely imagined ones. Through different episodes of her family history, she uncovers stories of love, betrayal and violence. The exploration of family and memory, and how they shape our identity, is beautifully handled, while the idea that there may be different versions of the past and of our lives is both fascinating and destabilising. The novel has a lot in common with Behind the Scenes at the Museum, particularly its focus on women and their families. This one is simply a little stranger, with its time distortions and touches of magical realism. I spent a wonderful time with this book.
‘Finish these diagrams for homework,’ Miss Thompsett orders pleasantly, ‘and if you can find time, read ahead to the next chapter in your textbook.’ Find time? Where might it be located? In space? (But not in the great void, surely?) At the bottom of the deep blue sea? At the centre of the earth? At the end of the rainbow? If we found time would it solve all our problems? ‘If only I had more time,’ Debbie says, ‘then I might get something done.’ But then what would she do?