BOOK BITES | Sara Nisha Adams, Una Mannion, Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Twilight Garden

Sara Nisha Adams, Harper Collins

4 stars

Tucked in northern London is a garden shared by No 77 and No 79. Once it was a sanctuary for the neighbourhood, full of people who did not blend into lily-white society.

Now it is full of brambles and decay, overseen by two neighbours who hate each other: Winston, whose relationship with Lewis is falling apart, and Bernice, who moved in with her son after a complicated divorce.

But the neighbourhood has always looked out for its own. With gentle nudges, Winston tentatively sinks his hands into the earth and Bernice’s son follows, tugging at his mother’s heart.

The Twilight Garden is a delightful, feel-good read about healing that celebrates community. — Tiah Beautement 

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Tell Me What I Am

Una Mannion, Faber & Faber

5 stars

It has a simple premise. A mother goes missing. The father/estranged partner is the suspect. The father receives full custody of the child. Though the premise is simple, the story and the writing is not. We are told the tale from two people’s perspectives. One is Ruby, the child who was torn from her life in Philadelphia and taken to the isolated, icy countryside of rural Vermont. We get to know her father Lucas through her eyes, as well as her grandmother Clover, who is cold and does not say much. To Ruby, Lucas is not a monster, but someone she respects and knows to be wary of at the same time. She knows he holds the answers to her past, but won’t tell her. The other part is told by Ruby’s aunt Nessa, who knows Lucas killed her sister Deena. She fights for custody of Ruby, but fails. Grief takes over. It's 14 years before Ruby and Nessa begin taking control of their lives. Ruby has to face a family history of abuse and Nessa learns what really happened to Deena. Mannion has created a powerful tale of the complexities of domestic abuse and how insidious it is. — Jennifer Platt

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Untamed Shore

Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Jo Fletcher Books

4 stars

Viridiana has big dreams and most don’t include her staying in the small town of Desengaño, in Baja California, Mexico.

Tourism has slumped and the fishing industry has slowed . Enter an American trio who Viridiana is convinced could offer her a life change.

And they do, just not in the way she expected. Swept up in their plots and secrets, Viridiana finds herself offering untruths for her new friends — in the hope it could provide a future for her.

But when death enters their orbit, Viridiana has to face reality. This is not Moreno-Garcia’s best work (it’s hard to live up to Gods of Jade and Shadow) but it is satisfying. — Jessica Levitt

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