Review
"A compelling story, sometimes funny, sometimes painfully sad... All family life is here, messy, insistent and, as the author convincingly shows, as essential as breathing."
--Sunday Times
"Margaret Forster has always had the enviable gift of making her characters spring to life, and both Isa and May do just that."
--Allan Massie, Scotsman
"A sensitive and intelligent novel with passages of beautifully modulated pathos, while being in part, hugely funny."
--The Times
--Sunday Times
"Margaret Forster has always had the enviable gift of making her characters spring to life, and both Isa and May do just that."
--Allan Massie, Scotsman
"A sensitive and intelligent novel with passages of beautifully modulated pathos, while being in part, hugely funny."
--The Times
Product Description
The curiously named Isamay, a would-be academic, is trying to write a coherent thesis about grandmothers in history - from Sarah Bernhardt and George Sand to the matriarchal Queen Victoria and other influential grannies -- while constantly ambushed by the secrets her own family has been keeping. An only child, she is named after her grandmothers, Isa and May, who were there at her birth and who have formed and influenced her in very different ways. Jealous of each other, they both want to be first in their granddaughter's affections. Isa has an edge, in that young Isamay looks like her, but Isa's reserved and elegant exterior hides startling surprises that could undermine her granddaughter's certainties. May, on the other hand, is plump, indomitable and opinionated, and it's from her that
Isamay inherits her stubborn determination. Isamay, almost thirty, has never wanted children, but suddenly considers changing her mind. Her live-in lover, Ian (always mysterious about his own family history) is sure that he does not want a child.
Engrossing, set in the present but with hooks into the past, this is an unusual story about grandmothers and their potentially powerful role in family life, about nature vs nurture, bloodlines and bridges across generations.
Isamay inherits her stubborn determination. Isamay, almost thirty, has never wanted children, but suddenly considers changing her mind. Her live-in lover, Ian (always mysterious about his own family history) is sure that he does not want a child.
Engrossing, set in the present but with hooks into the past, this is an unusual story about grandmothers and their potentially powerful role in family life, about nature vs nurture, bloodlines and bridges across generations.
About the Author
Born in Carlisle, MARGARET FORSTER is the author of many successful and acclaimed novels, including Have the Men Had Enough?, Lady's Maid, Diary of an Ordinary Woman, Is There Anything You Want? and most recently Over, as well as bestselling memoirs (Hidden Lives and Precious Lives) and biographies.
