ISBN: 9781487009403 ASIN: B08L9R7Y97 330 pagesĬlaire Fuller is an award-winning novelist and short fiction writer. This review was written voluntarily and my rating was in no way influenced by the fact that I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel from So yes, I would definitely recommend this novel, though you might have to be in the right frame of mind to do so. The writing was astounding and I was completely immersed in Jeanie’s story and had great sympathy for her plight. Yet to say that I did not enjoy it would be a lie. To say I enjoyed this book seems wrong because of the many distressing circumstances described within it. The tale is told with vivid imagery, a few of which scenes will remain with me for a very long time. Of living an austere life of opportunities missed, and of pride. It is a tale of hardship, of poverty, injustice, and perseverance. This is definitely not an uplifting story. When the late Dot’s secrets are revealed, Jeanie is most profoundly impacted. When they are made homeless, Julius seeks independence and a ‘life’ outside their insular world, while Jeanie wants only to preserve their former existence. This event changes their isolated and sheltered world to such an extent both physically and emotionally, that they flounder – and understandably so.

The twin brother and sister are fifty-one years old at the time of their mother’s death. Most of us cannot fathom their isolation and their abject poverty, but both of these things are not of great importance to either of them. The protagonists in this novel live on the fringes of society, or more accurately on the dust held by the fringes of society. I’m always drawn to books that feature eccentric characters and this one really delivered in that aspect. Dot, the mother, played banjo, while Julius accompanied her on his fiddle and Jeanie played guitar. The twins, along with their mother were accomplished folk musicians. This sends them both on a precipitous downward spiral which leaves them homeless and shocked to learn some long-held family secrets. When their mother dies, they learn that the family have many outstanding debts, and no way to pay them. As a result she is almost illiterate and their tiny, rundown cottage is the only world she has ever known. Jeannie suffered from rheumatic fever as a child and was kept out of school a lot. Julius does go out to work doing odd jobs and is the more robust of the twins. Jeannie and Julius Seeder are twins who live in rural isolation deep in the heart of Oxfordshire.

“It is hard to rewrite your own history”.

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