An extended meditation ... Affecting ... Moss’s writing has always been characterised by its range, and the latest novel does not disappoint ... Part of the attraction of this captivating novel is Moss’s curiosity about different ways of knowing.
This evocative distinction between storytelling and action aligns with the novel’s dual narrative, which both connects us to and distances us from this compelling and at times frustrating character ... But while its critiques of contemporary attitudes towards migration, and failures in historical thinking, and the ways some refugees are accepted while others are not, do lose some force, it remains a powerful and beautifully written story of family, friendship and identity.
This is a novel of two halves ... Some of older Edith’s ruminations are fascinating...but elsewhere she errs towards an aggravating self-righteousness ... This holier-than-thou attitude (and the slower pace of the Ireland section in general) is particularly annoying because it casts a shadow over some of the book’s strengths.
Moss falls prey to an Achilles’ heel of contemporary fiction in which protagonists hold forth at length about the world’s ills ... The more embodied chapters about Edith at 'seventeen and hungry in every way' are, however, a pleasure, showing the author’s flair for evocative prose ... It is as if Sarah Moss feels freer to flesh out a landscape rooted in the past.
