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Borderline
When artist, Eve, leaves London to live alone where no one knows her in small-town Shipden on the north Norfolk coast, little does she suspect that the next eighteen months will change everything.
As she writes to and receives emails from her travelling daughter, Jez, Eve's story unfolds, filtered through her particular perspective, while around her, in the old house converted to flats, strange characters inhabit her new life. People like Hester, the eccentric widow of a once well-known journalist and Amos, a troubled man searching for a wife.
But the quiet life is not what it seems. Eve's relationship with a local poet, Choker is disturbed when Leo, an actor from her past, finds her. When ex-military-man, Knox, moves in to the house as others leave, her new sense of home is under question. And even in this secluded place, there are those who know more about Eve than she knows herself, like the two old Russian sculptors who can tell her about her unknown father.
Inhabiting this fragile borderline, will Eve be able to make a new life fostering unwanted and troubled children? Will hope win the day in this story of secrets, death, grief, and the bonds that tie mother and daughter?
A compelling debut novel from poet and artist, Jenny Morris.
As she writes to and receives emails from her travelling daughter, Jez, Eve's story unfolds, filtered through her particular perspective, while around her, in the old house converted to flats, strange characters inhabit her new life. People like Hester, the eccentric widow of a once well-known journalist and Amos, a troubled man searching for a wife.
But the quiet life is not what it seems. Eve's relationship with a local poet, Choker is disturbed when Leo, an actor from her past, finds her. When ex-military-man, Knox, moves in to the house as others leave, her new sense of home is under question. And even in this secluded place, there are those who know more about Eve than she knows herself, like the two old Russian sculptors who can tell her about her unknown father.
Inhabiting this fragile borderline, will Eve be able to make a new life fostering unwanted and troubled children? Will hope win the day in this story of secrets, death, grief, and the bonds that tie mother and daughter?
A compelling debut novel from poet and artist, Jenny Morris.
203 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 17, 2022
1 person want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 18, 2024
I liked this novel. It centres on Eve, an artist and teacher in – I guess – her late 30s or early 40s, who leaves London to make a new life in the faded seaside resort of Shipden. While there she will confront a difficult past. She will also form new relationships with a kaleidoscope of characters, all very different, and each with something to show her about life in general. Meanwhile she does confront her past, which is revealed to the reader at just the right speed.
What makes this book worth reading is mostly the cast of characters. There’s Hester, the bohemian widow of an alcoholic writer; Cheryl the hopeless young mother; Leo the feckless, sponging ex; Choker the chaotic poet; and Amos, the ironmonger’s assistant who can’t cope with humans. It was Amos who I found most striking, but they’re all memorable.
So is Shipden, the once-fashionable English seaside town with what Hester calls its “shabby gentility”. It’s a real place and I recognised it quickly, but as author Jenny Morris doesn’t identify it, I won’t. Morris is very good at depicting the changing seasons in the town, and links this rather well to Eve’s evolution as she deals with her past life and builds a new one.
All in all, a good read.
What makes this book worth reading is mostly the cast of characters. There’s Hester, the bohemian widow of an alcoholic writer; Cheryl the hopeless young mother; Leo the feckless, sponging ex; Choker the chaotic poet; and Amos, the ironmonger’s assistant who can’t cope with humans. It was Amos who I found most striking, but they’re all memorable.
So is Shipden, the once-fashionable English seaside town with what Hester calls its “shabby gentility”. It’s a real place and I recognised it quickly, but as author Jenny Morris doesn’t identify it, I won’t. Morris is very good at depicting the changing seasons in the town, and links this rather well to Eve’s evolution as she deals with her past life and builds a new one.
All in all, a good read.
Displaying 1 of 1 review