Marcella Edwards
The Sane Woman in the Attic
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
By Maggie O' Farrell
Headline Review 245pp £14.99 order from our bookshop
Reading the publisher’s blurb for this novel, I’m disappointed. It promises an ‘exciting new departure’ from Maggie O’Farrell’s previous work, the best book you’ll read all year, and so on. ‘Exciting’ is up to the reader to judge, and for those who love O’Farrell’s writing, a departure is not necessarily something one would wish for. But for once the claims stand up. The novel is brilliant in every way.
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