The Past by Tessa Hadley
Four siblings meet in rural England at the home they grew up in
for what could be the last time. Is it
time to sell the home and all the memories it contains? Even the most nostalgic of the bunch thinks
that it may be time to part ways from the house rather than undertake the cost
and effort to update and maintain it.
With the decision all but made the siblings and their guests, familial
and otherwise, are determined to enjoy their last summer there.
There is an art to writing a compelling book that makes your
readers want to keep turning the pages in a book in which nothing much happens. Children get into things that ought not to,
teenagers find their ways to be together, love blossoms but doesn’t necessarily
bloom and adult children wonder if they will ever get past their childhoods. I’ll admit to waiting for something horrible
and awful to happen at the end, but I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t. This is family life and life in general, seen
in a window of three weeks.
I both listened to and read this book and can recommend
both. Best read on a lazy summer day,
preferably when on a family vacation spending a rainy day indoors.
