Dorothy Forrest is immersed in the sensory world around her; she lives in the flickering moment. From the age of seven, when her odd, disenfranchised family moves from New York City to the wide skies of Auckland, to the very end of her life, this is her great gift and possible misfortune. Through the wilderness of a commune, to falling in love, to early marriage and motherhood, from the glorious anguish of parenting to the loss of everything worked for and the unexpected return of love, Dorothy is swept along by time. Her family looms and recedes; revelations come to light; death changes everything, but somehow life remains as potent as it ever was, and the joy in just being won't let her go. In a narrative that shifts and moves, growing as wild as the characters, The Forrests is an extraordinary literary achievement. A novel that sings with colour and memory, it speaks of family and time, dysfunction, ageing and loneliness, about heat, youth, and how life can change if 'you're lucky enough to be around for it'.
Review
An expansive and ambitious novel, beautifully written and covering great swathes of emotional territory. Emily Perkins takes a lot of risks and pulls them off Lawrence Norfolk A strikingly skilful storyteller Joseph O'Connor Brimming with talent Esther Freud A writer very much in command not only of her language but of the unique and surprising variations she brings to the form T. C. Boyle A fascinating portrait of a marriage, in all its labyrinthine complexity and tenderness. A beautiful, shocking book, it had me gripped from its very first sentence Maggie O'Farrell, on Novel About My Wife
Review
An expansive and ambitious novel, beautifully written and covering great swathes of emotional territory. Emily Perkins takes a lot of risks and pulls them off Lawrence Norfolk A strikingly skilful storyteller Joseph O'Connor Brimming with talent Esther Freud A writer very much in command not only of her language but of the unique and surprising variations she brings to the form T. C. Boyle A fascinating portrait of a marriage, in all its labyrinthine complexity and tenderness. A beautiful, shocking book, it had me gripped from its very first sentence Maggie O'Farrell, on Novel About My Wife