Author: Linda Grant
Number of pages: 352
Started: 13 July 2012
Finished: 20 July 2012
Opening words:
Aged nine, Stephen standing outside the fur-storage depot where his father works, his sturdy legs in shorts planted on Californian ground. Feet wide apart, shoulders up, arms behind his back, his neck sticking out from the collar of a checked shirt to which a narrow bow-tie has been clipped, and his round Charlie Brown head dusted with the dark shadow of a crew-cut. All-American boy.
Read a longer extract here.
Plot summary:
Born to hardworking immigrant parents in sunny suburban Los Angeles, Stephen Newman never imagined that he would spend his adult life under the grey skies of north London, would marry Andrea for convenience and stay married, and would watch his children grow into people he cannot fathom. Over forty years he and his friends have built lives of comfort and success, until the events of late middle age and the new century force them to realise that they have always existed in a fool's paradise.
What I thought:
I enjoyed this book and was pleased that it was a story that involved someone leaving America, rather than going there, which is often a theme in novels. I mean no offence to the USA, it is just a fairly common aspect of novels (or at least ones that I read). It was a well written story and a decent plot.
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