Set in the American mid- and south-west, the novel opens in 1976 when the young teenage protagonist, Erica, is in a psychiatric hospital following a suicide attempt. Fast forward to the present and Erica, now in her fifties, takes a phone call at work telling her that her mother, Caroline, has died. From this point the story moves backwards in time with each chapter shedding light - and dramatic irony - on those it follows. This mother-daughter relationship seesaws between cooperation and opposition; they are best friends and worst enemies; their conversations have an unflinching intensity and an emotional punch. Hindsight changes everything as the years drop away with each chapter and their founding layers and their most intimate relationships are unveiled. Against a backdrop of the significant social changes that took place in the last half of the 20th century - the Vietnam war protests, Oklahoma bombing, Hurricane Katrina, 9/11 - they reveal themselves gradually and, in so doing, expose the stigma and experience of mental health problems, sexual politics, infertility, homosexuality and single parenthood. Crackling with energy and wit, the novel captures the exacting rhythm and beat of their bond, the significant shifts in their relationship, why they made the choices they did and became the people they are. The novel is ripe with humour, and tender as well as ruthless. Brutally honest, horribly funny and unexpectedly uplifting, it is an extraordinary debut.
Industry Reviews
'Ruth Figgest demonstrates how to make a story about more than one thing at once. Her astute young heroine faces the prospect of plastic surgery to render her looks more pleasing to her lovingly fault-finding mother but simultaneously arrives at a new understanding of the state of her parents' marriage and the ambivalent purpose she has to serve within it.' Patrick Gale; 'Ruth Figgest has a deep understanding of the human condition in all its many guises and depicts it with razorsharp accuracy. Her characters are emotionally vulnerable, self-sabotaging, and prone to exhilaratingly outrageous behaviour, but they somehow never lose our sympathy. This is psychologically acute, perceptive and witty writing that can make you laugh out loud and wince with discomfort at the same time.' Umi Sinha; 'A thoroughly compelling read: pointed yet subtle, it skewers middle-class American foibles with biting humour and authentic compassion. Figgest's voices are so real and tangible they leap offthe page into your ears and into your bones.' Martin Spinelli; 'Ruth Figgest has as firm and careful a grasp on the delicate texture of relationships as any writer since Henry James. This painful-and often, disconcertingly, funny-exploration of a mother and daughter's growing apart, growing up, growing old, growing together, peels back layers of time and accretions of expectation to bare a connection harder than love and more complex than distance. It is a compelling novel.' Claudia Gould
