“There is no secret, Tom, or else there are hundreds of them, and none of them interesting enough for you. The secret is that we’re a family, we’re just an ordinary family, with ordinary unhappiness like yours.”

I like many others was not expecting this to be Nolan’s sophomore novel. I was a lover of Acts of Desperation and the emotions she was able to pack into that story. Somehow Ordinary Human Failings packs more of a punch. Telling the story of the Green family, a family painted as bad apples. The Irish immigrant family tried to start their life over in London, but darkness seems to cloud overhead wherever they go. In comes Tom, a reporter with big ambitions, who stumbles across what he thinks is the story of a lifetime. A child is dead and all signs point to one of the Green’s bad apples. This story is so much more than just a crime drama or a mystery.

I am a lover of in-depth character studies and the way Nolan manages to paint this families history from all different angles and points of view showing the reader who they really are. How human they really are. We learn from each point of view the familial trauma that has gotten the family where it is today. Grief, addiction, depression, wage gaps and lack of opportunity. We see the depth of human nature. The complexity of nature vs nurture. It’s raw it’s visceral you feel like you’ve sat with these characters and gotten to know them as you read. Nolan knows how to write troubled people so well, people who have been hurt and broken and just want a way to continue living. I loved Carmel and how her mind worked realizing the flaws in her mothering. I do think Tom’s character wasn’t necessary, but I do understand the point he made of journalism and I enjoyed the way Nolan wrote him. I could go on about this book and Nolan’s writing in general, but I won’t. Pick up one of her books and see for yourself.

Ordinary Human Failings is out in the US Feb 5th. Thank you Netgalley and little brown and company for this arc in exchange for an honest review.