Suzi Feay

Papering over the Cracks

Widows and Orphans

By

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Blended families are complicated enough in real life; in fiction they pose significant challenges. When a minor character announces, ‘My daughter’s ex-husband was a fraudster and a thief’, even the most alert reader might have to stop and check that they know who’s who. Michael Arditti’s new novel is not literally full of widows and orphans, but it is pervaded by a sense of adriftness and fracture. 

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