1961 The Netherlands, Isabel lives a quiet, disciplined life in her late mother’s country house until her brother deposits his new girlfriend Eva to stay for several weeks…

Told with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, I can’t tell if the story’s revelations are meant to be a surprise to the reader or not. Either way, I guessed the entire plot on page 10, which completely took the wind out of the story’s sails for me - I wasn’t invested enough by that point to feel particularly curious about whether I was correct. (If I hadn’t been set on reading the whole Booker shortlist, I might have DNFed.)

Set during an overlooked period of recentish European history - a decade or so post-WWII where cosmetic war damage has mostly disappeared, but a deeper reckoning has proved elusive - there was real potential to the story. It’s difficult to really say much without spoilers, but essentially, whilst it covers some important topics (I’d have liked far more of the third part and less of the rest), much of it felt heavy-handed.

I never quite bought into Isabel as a character - her rigidity and helpless reliance on her allowance felt more pre-WWI than post-WWII, and it felt like there was some character backstory missing. Eva was a more intriguing character, with a more complicated (thus interesting) perspective to offer.

A predictable and heavy-handed post-WWII story of love, loss and reckoning with the past.