GRACE’S DAY

William Wall Loot.co.za (R300)

Head of Zeus

GRACE’S DAY refers to an occasion not of triumph, but of tragedy, in this brooding novel.

We begin on a remote Irish island, where Grace and her sisters, Jeannie and Em, live with Jane, their psychologically fragile mother. All four provide fodder for Jane’s writer husband Tom, who observes from a distance the hardships of selfsufficiency. Grace and Jeannie take turns to watch over toddler Em, who dies in a terrible accident. The consequences are revealed years later in chapters narrated by Grace and Jeannie.

Grace is now a psychologist whose protective irony and chilling, comfortless insights underscore her own damage. This mood of lives irreparably spoiled makes this bitter-tasting tale so potent.