This is a knockout of a novel!!!! Difficult to review without any spoiler. Trust me on this. Don't miss reading this finely written book on family dynamics, abuse, and trying to rise above what's been dealt.

This book is excellent, I strongly recommend it. It packs some strong punches and leaves you emotionally reeling in places. I had to keep putting it down and taking a deep breathe before carrying on. And I did carry on each time, as it is a compelling read.

The 1950s will never seem the same again - claustrophobic, dark, deep, but oh so polite dahling, anyone for tennis? Many deep issues are covered - and are handled in a very skillful manner by the author who manages to make the incidents come across as horrific as they are, whilst in no way salacious or gratuitous.

Strange hype and accolades for a book that brings new meaning to the expression "the passive voice". Have all these reviewers ignored or missed the almost pathological use of the phrase "It was . . ." Any writer worth his or her salt knows to avoid the passive voice . . . and yet, Ms Jones displays a promiscuity of the passive voice that left me, for one, feeling slighted and ripped off and made me that much more cynical about the state of the book publishing (and reviewing) industry. Have none of these people read Joyce/Beckett/Waugh/Dickens/name any 20th century writer . . . It is depressing, is what it is.