Family life takes a disturbing turn

IN the summer of 1950, nine-year-old Willa realises a gulf is opening up between her and her beloved teenage sister Joan. Although they are close, glamorous Joan is developing curves and catching the eye of all the boys. Willa suddenly feels left behind.

At the same time, Willa’s mum has a new beau and he and his sons Kenneth and Patrick arrive from San Francisco to stay with them. The boys seem strangely exotic to the sisters who were born and raised in British Columbia, Canada: “They arrived with the sun in them, their bodies hard and tan like peanuts, their eyes chlorine blue.”

As the story unfolds, a sweet romance blossoms between Joan and Kenneth, the elder of the two brothers. “I knew he and my sister loved each other when she made a daisy chain and he tucked it in the pocket of his shorts,” Willa says.

But a more sinister relationship develops between Willa and the strange younger brother Patrick. He likes to sit on a log and burn moths with a magnifying glass, making Willa cry: “The wings ignited like dog-eared pages in a book.”

He plays malicious games knowing Willa will get hurt, on one occasion taking her out on a rowing boat and letting her get stung by a jellyfish.

Although Patrick is increasingly cruel to Willa, she finds herself inexplicably drawn to him, going along with his games because she wants to win his approval. Her hapless mother pays little attention, preferring to sit in her dressing gown drinking Campari cocktails and smoking.

Eliza Robertson has followed her 2015 collection of short stories, Wallflowers, with a debut novel that is gripping, original and richly descriptive, full of perceptive observations of sibling dynamics.

It also builds tension underneath the saccharine surface of 1950s suburbia, conjuring the atmosphere of a breathlessly hot summer’s day shortly before a storm breaks, amid the growing tension about where Patrick’s dark games will lead.

A daring page-turner to devour in one sitting.