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It was too difficult to choose between Sleep & Night Swimmers. And I had to do it because there was no way I was about to knock off Hilary Mantel‘s book (which I still think is going to win) to add one of them to the Wild Card space.

Fortunately, I‘d already filled September in as soon as I finished Sleep (long before I picked up Night Swimmers). So, the decision was made for me by Past Me. 😅

#ReadingBracket2025
#2025ReadingBracket

I loved Sleep as much as you can love a book about an impossibly hard topic—which is to say, a lot.

In her review in the NY Times, Fiona Maazel writes, “What surprised me was that out of its careful, orderly prose — every word neatly placed as if on a well-set table — grew an exceptionally moving novel.” Jones sets the table but she also performs the magician‘s trick of pulling the tablecloth out from underneath with all the words still set.👇🏻

Loved the first half of this coming of age novel. It focuses on Margaret (10 years old) and her relationships with intense and believably-rendered family dynamics. The second half of the novel is the MC grown with a family of her own, which I enjoyed less than the first half. Mother-daughter//sibling relationships. Sandwich generation. Some definite TW, but spoiler so check those if needed.

We first meet Margaret as a child, followed by meeting her again as a divorced mother of two little girls. This book accomplishes so much, bringing her childhood trauma into the light as a mother, grownup, sibling, daughter. Her life is determined by this event, she can never seem to get a grip on it, she constantly reacts to events coming from that place in her life as a child. Not to mention her mother…yikes!

I finished this book this morning and have thought about the MC Margaret all day. Imagine being a kid and having a parent who makes you wonder if they dislike you/hate you. You look around for allies in the family and realize no one wants to upset the apple cart. That later in life you have enough distance where you start realizing you have made decisions to keep that parent comfortable. That maybe those same decisions were a betrayal of 👇🏼

Pages 154-156 gutted me.

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Thanks to @TrishB for putting this on my radar by nominating it for #camplitsy25. Pub date 22nd May in the UK.

Margaret is 10 years old when her safe family life is fractured. Now, 25 years later, she tries to reconcile her childhood with that of her two young daughters.

There are so many great debut novels out at the moment, and this is one of them.