A House for Alice: From the Women’s Prize shortlisted author of Ordinary People

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On the other hand the music embedded throughout the novel (this was a novel very much with its own soundtrack) and there was some brilliant observational writing on coupledom or parenthood.

I just felt that this novel was unparalleled in terms of both writing and topics it touched, which is something extremely rare. Intimately drawn and set against a fraught political backdrop, yet equally full of hope, humor, and humanity, A House for Alice traces the scars of grief and betrayal across generations and uncovers the secrets we keep from those closest to us. Some of the characters' dilemmas were such that I, the reader, found myself prompting them from off-stage.Evans is unafraid to face these questions, and while I wouldn't go so far as to say the book argues for the existence of ghosts or an afterlife, there are a couple of hints that, while some things stay lost forever, they can also be found. It was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel, the Guardian First Book, the Commonwealth Best First Book and the Times/South Bank Show Breakthrough awards, and longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. As the story progresses, we meet Alice’s children and their families and how they cope with the death in their family and Alice’s impending plans to leave – old wounds, resentments, and disappointments rise to the surface and what is left to be seen is whether the family is brought closer or does tragedy and loss tear them further apart.

Makes me think of a Brueghel painting with many individuals going about their business in a London that is at times on fire. Their push-and-pull dynamic over the years reflects the struggles faced by many in a society that perpetuates inequality. Another annoyance is that we'd be two pages into a new chapter with only "she" mentioned before we were told whose perspective we were in. A House for Alice by Diana Evans is a deeply moving exploration of family, loss, and the enduring impact of the Grenfell Tower fire.It leaves it up for debate about where this book was going with the purpose of the story getting lost in amongst all the lyrical writing and dozens of characters. Evans’s publishers are being oddly coy about this new novel’s ties to its predecessor, but anyone coming to A House for Alice without first having read Ordinary People will be flummoxed by certain elements, in particular sections depicting a harrowing loss for Damian and his family. And Avril and Blake feature as the young in peril in the middle distance - with different outcomes despite their parents’ hopes. The novel is a study of identity, race, belonging, the collapse of society and incompetence of contemporary politicians. Her second novel, The Wonder, was also published to critical acclaim, described by The Times as 'the most dazzling depiction of the world of dance since Ballet Shoes'.

Evans glimpses something heroic in her middle-aged characters as they summon the wherewithal to square fading dreams with reality, but she imbues seventysomething Alice with fierce determination. Khadija Saye and Mary Mendy, among others, haunt these pages as two or three warring families try to find their way back to happiness. I really appreciated seeing an in-depth portrait of a family that is simultaneously unraveling at the seams and continually there for each other; they are constantly at each other’s throats but they’re never far from each other.

I imagine Paul Hollywood's feedback if she were a contestant on Great British Bake Off: beautiful but needs more flavor. am because the baby is awake, and ideally the book will lift me out of the weariness and frustration of those moments, but this one didn’t.

through the delicacy of her [Evans's] prose, the deftness of her dialogue and the clarity of her observations, she manages to create a novel that measures up to life. I found it easy to keep up with the introduction of new characters throughout the book, due to the the author’s talent of being able to create such distinct personalities, while avoiding boxing characters into stereotypes with cookie-cutter likes and dislikes. A House for Alice by Diana Evans is a well-written story that revolves around themes of family, tragedy, and how the definition of home can change over time. The book opens, alongside the Grenfell Tower fire, with another fatal fire on the same evening – Cornelius, living on his own and increasingly suffering from dementia, falls asleep and his lit cigarette causes his death. Told from many viewpoints, the novel reads like interconnected short stories and can be a bit hard to follow at times because of the abundance of characters including the members of the Pitt family as well as Melissa's ex-husband, Michael, and his new wife, Nicole, and friends Damian, Stephanie and their family.The house for Alice was not the focal point and I was left confused by all the characters and the long descriptions that didn’t always seem relevant . Apparently it contains a lot of the same characters and whilst I did manage to read it and have a good understanding of the themes in the book, I do think I would have benefitted from reading Ordinary People.