The Things We Thought We Knew

✍ Scribed by Mahsuda Snaith

• Publisher: Transworld
• Year: 2017
• Tongue: English
• Category: Fiction

✦ Synopsis

The Things We Thought We Knew' tells the story of an eighteen-year-old Bengali girl called Ravine, who lives in a council flat in Leicester. Since an accident ten years earlier, Ravine has been pretty much bed-bound with a chronic pain condition resulting from nerve damage. She only sees her mother, whom she calls Amma (Bengali for mother), and a tutor and medical personnel. She reflects back upon her childhood, when ten years before her best friend, Marianne, lived next door with her brother Jonathan and neglectful mother. One of the presents her mother gives Ravine for her birthday is a journal, with instructions to keep a 'Pain Diary' in the hope that this will help her get a handle on her condition. Ravine finds that she is using this to reminisce about the events of ten years ago which changed everything, which might just be enough to help her.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and found the slightly unusual setting very refreshing. The flashback portions were evocative of the time, and the actual incident was shocking yet plausible. The gradual shift in Ravine's demeanour is well-handled, and the characters were authentic and sympathetic. A great debut novel.