CONTEMPORARY FICTION
THAT GIRL FROM NOWHERE
by Dorothy Koomson
(Century £12.99)
ALL her life, the adopted Clemency ‘Smitty’ Smittson has felt like the girl from nowhere. A chance meeting leads her to her birth family. But her reunion with them is far from plain sailing and results in an impossible request being made of her.
Besides her new family, Smitty also has to contend with her ex-husband, her recently widowed ‘mum’ who’s moved in with her, her jealous cousin nancy and young daughter Sienna — and let’s not forget the dishy owner of the coffee shop just down the promenade.
Race, euthanasia, the search for self and desire to belong are among the subjects dealt with in this cracker of a novel. The warmth of Koomson’s writing and her ability to get into her main character’s head and heart are completely involving from the get-go.
Smitty may be flawed and sometimes difficult, but I was rooting for her all the way.
THE GOOD GIRL
by Fiona Neill
(Michael Joseph £14.99)
NEUROSCIENTIST Harry Field and his wife Ailsa, a head teacher, uproot their family and move to norfolk. Soon after, new neighbours also arrive: sex therapists wolf and Loveday Fairport and their two teenage boys.
when a colleague brings Ailsa a confiscated phone featuring a sex tape that has already gone viral, she is horrified to see the girl in the film is her own daughter, Romy.
Told from Ailsa and Romy’s alternating points of view, this is a compelling portrait of a modern family dealing with a rocky marriage, a troublesome elderly parent and two teenagers exploring their sexuality.
Against the background of parental infidelities and deceit is set the story of the potential and alarming repercussions of teen sex in the digital age.
Sometimes touching, sometimes shocking and occasionally wearing its research a little too heavily, this cautionary coming- of-age tale is a thought-provoking one.
FRAGMENTS
by Sarah Foot
(Quercus £19.99)
JULIA SNOWE is a workobsessed barrister who believes her happiness quotient is 20/20. She has two daughters, and her husband Phillip has given up his advertising career to ‘give something back’ and to spend more time at home.
But as he struggles with his new role as school governor, cracks begin to appear in their marriage.
Laura Cusack is a single mother of twins. Her father, Patrick, is a renowned painter and, like Julia, he fails to realise that his success has been at the expense of his partner’s happiness. Laura’s meeting with Phillip is the catalyst for the these two troubled families to implode.
The characters are beadily portrayed, but the novel’s real reward comes from its take on contemporary life — and what resonates most tellingly is the message that life is short and putting others first is what matters.