Number 67- The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox- Maggie O'Farrell

And this was a book for another book group.  I would have struggled to pick up a book with such an anodyne cover, regardless of how much I liked Hamnet by the same writer, without the choice being made on my behalf.

However, this book totally defies any negative expectations given by that cover.

Esme Lennox  has been locked in a mental institution since the 1940s when she was 17.  Now, 61 and a bit years later, the old institutions are closing and she is released into the care of her grand niece. Much against the wishes of that niece.

This novel explores her life, and the life of her family in intricate detail. Her niece, Iris, is busy trying to juggle running a shop and some strained romantic entanglements. Caring for an elderly woman she's never heard of before yesterday was not in her plans.

Kitty, Esme's sister and Iris's gran, is the only person living who knows the truth about Esme, why she was locked up, and why she's never been mentioned at all in the last six decades.

The details of what happened are drip fed to us exquisitely. It's almost a psychological  thriller about family dynamics. The revelations near the end of the book shocked me to my core.

It took me a few chapters wo tune into this and work out who was who and how they linked, but once all that was straight, this was unputdownable.  I raced through this in two days. 

I loved Hamnet, and now I can unreservedly say I loved this one too.  It packs a real gut punch. I must get more O'Farrell on the TBR.