Wow… 

It’s Christmas morning and I’ve been up since before 6am like an anxious child, and so, I started reading this novel, which has been on my list since it was published and I’ve wanted to read it in one go, as I knew that’s what it would compel me to do—and lo, that’s (almost) what I’ve done this morning. Hark, it’s Christmas morning. Lo and behold, I’ve read it all.

What a story…! And not implausible. I did think that the story would be about the twins, though, and when it shifted to the daughter, I was waiting for it to return to the mother’s story—and perhaps include the twin sister’s—but we stayed with the daughter. Not what I expected, but it circled round to the twins after all in a perfectly natural manner. I admit, I wanted more of the story of the twins from the start, and that seemed to pass too quickly over too many years, and then was unraveled and revealed from hindsight’s perspective.

The tertiary characters were a collection of interesting eccentrics who served to highlight the more ‘normal’ characteristics of the otherwise deemed socially odd twins.

A story of racism and systems of racism still digging nails in deep, even where least expected. A beautiful story that gives real hope for reconciliation.