Book summary

The narrator, unnamed, is a middle-aged woman living in a post-apocalyptic London. She is given a 12-year-old girl, Emily, to care for, and the novel chronicles their relationship, Emily's growth into a woman, and how she eventually teaches the narrator to live in this new, chaotic world. As the novel progresses, the narrator stares at her living room wall and fantasizes an alternate reality, which helps her shed her pre-apocalyptic values and judgments so she can live in this new world. Ultimately, the fantasy becomes more real than the reality, and integration of the self becomes a major theme.

Media reviews

"One of her profoundest visionary excursions."