THOSE FARADAY GIRLS by Monica McInerney

You will know the saying 'blood is thicker than water' - well, for the Faraday sisters it is more like the thickest glue you could imagine. Such family bonds would, for many people be excruciating, but somehow, you never really can get away from your family.   In 1980s Tasmania, the five Faraday girls, ranging in age from 25 to 17, live with their father in Hobart. Their mother died some years previously, the youngest Clementine not really having much memory of her. She did leave some diaries, however, there is some confusion around  where they may be, or if they are even still in existence.

Julia, the oldest at 25, has taken over the 'mother' role - cooking, cleaning, organising etc; Miranda at 23 is totally self absorbed, and with a tongue on her that makes lemons look sweet; Eliza and Sadie are in their late teens,  both at university, and Clementine is at school. Dad Leo is an inventor of sorts, desperately mourning his wife, shutting himself away in his shed 'inventing'. Things change dramatically when Clementine announces she is pregnant. The sisters all pledge for the next five years to put their lives on hold to raise this child,  ensuring Clementine finishes school and goes to university. And so it happens. 

But not without resentments, secrets, inner turmoils and lots of emotion! The child, Maggie, is a darling and slowly it is Sadie who takes on the 'mother' role so Clementine can pursue her studies. This all comes to a head when Maggie is six, and the family is torn apart by one totally unexpected action. We then jump ahead twenty years. The sisters are scattered all over the place, Maggie has fled London for New York, and the annual Christmas gathering in Ireland is fast approaching. The family has never recovered from the event that took place 20 years ago, leaving a gaping fracture. Leo, now an old man, is determined to gather all his girls in one place for the first time in all those years, and he needs Maggie to help him achieve it. 

Perhaps a trifle long, but I really did enjoy this family saga. Like all good families, all the members are flawed, troubled, moving and merging alliances, unable to communicate effectively with each other. There are secrets which continue to control and haunt the sisters and their father. Maggie is the one who has been sheltered from much of this, so naturally becomes the agent to bring them all together. I liked and disliked all the girls, and their father which is what happens in your own family anyway. Full of intense emotion and a reasonably satisfying ending.