It’s 1963 and Charlotte is struggling with what looks, from this vantage, like severe post natal depression. You’d have to hope she’d get more help these days, but back then there was nothing. Charlotte and her husband decide to move to Australia but it gives her no joy either.
This is a beautifully written book, aptly portraying Charlotte’s emptiness and emotional dislocation, but somehow it left me largely unmoved. Perhaps Charlotte’s blank emotional state is portrayed so well that it’s difficult to bond with her. In essence it’s a worthy novel but not much fun to read.
