WHAT WE THOUGHT WE KNEW BY CLAIRE DYER

This book, this wonderful book, is absolute perfection. Spare, taut, yet rich in detail, it builds layer on layer, each scene perfectly crafted and tensioned. The incredibly talented Claire Dyer at her absolute best.

Fourteen years before the main narrative of the book, a tragic accident leaves ripples in its wake that spread far and wide. No-one amongst the group of neighbours involved, and their children, remain unaffected. But, interspersed with these ripples are secrets.

The three adjacent houses in Penwood Heights become a life raft where the remaining adults and children cling together, bound by Faith who knows far more than she is prepared to let on. There are cracks, of course there are, cracks which the book explores in exquisite and excruciating detail; cracks which make the characters who they are.

And yet, on the outside, these people live perfectly ordinary lives and this is part of the genius of What We Thought We Knew. As is the way the reader will come to care for each and every one of them. We recognise them. We know them. I was so invested in them I found it hard to breathe as the secrets came tumbling out, all the time willing them to finally make the right choices and move on.