NECESSARY SECRETS by Greg McGee

It is really quite intriguing that the same two parents can produce children, bring them up the same way, and yet, they are so incredibly different and diverse from each other. Their lives take different paths, some good, some not so good. They get on with each other, they don't. It is completely and totally fascinating how families operate. Greg McGee has written a masterwork in this novel of three very different adult siblings over the course of a year, a different season for each.

Their father Den, who lives in the old family home in the gold mine of Herne Bay, is turning 70. Suffering from dementia he is still lucid enough to know that things are all down hill, and with his trusty gun at his side is considering ending it all. Oldest child Will, who now owns and works in the advertising agency started by his father, is not a nice person, immersing himself in drugs and seedy sex, recently separated from his wife. Ellie is the middle child, the only daughter, compassionate, kind, taking a break from her social work career to look after Den. In reality she has burnt out, her work with domestic violence victims taking its toll. Youngest child Stan left Auckland some years ago and is now living the pared back life on a commune-style farm in the Nelson area. There is also a foster boy, Jackson, and his sister Lila, taken under the wing of Ellie and living with her and Den.

What to do with Dad becoming increasingly disoriented and confused, what is Will to do with the business on the rocks, what is Ellie to do now that Den is going into care, what is Stan to do as he sees his idyllic life is not as satisfying as it once was. The characters are so real, so well developed, every few pages revealing a different facet of each, their relationships with each other, the dilemmas they try to navigate. And there is also a very good story, with many issues that most of us have had to face at some stage in our lives, especially regarding sibling stuff. 

I loved this - so insightful, it's not all fluff and roses, there is a murder - quite bloody as it happens, and the whole thing has the feel of complete real-ness. A modern retelling of how families can fall apart, and how there is still hope for improvement when everyone starts talking and communicating again.