Simon never knew his father, who left with no explanation the day after his wife told him she was pregnant, only to appear on the passenger list of a deadly plane crash on Tenerife in 1977 - 40ish years on, he still doesn’t know how to feel about this loss…

I’m drawn to books about grief, and was intrigued by the question of grieving somebody you never knew, but actually this didn’t really delve into grief and its impact all that much. In fact, it didn’t really delve into anything all that much - the story’s various offshoots all felt underdeveloped and never quite went anywhere, including the other main thread of loneliness. It did make for an easy read - a good holiday read, perhaps (if you’re not flying anywhere).

I appreciated that the story didn’t unfold exactly as expected - some of it, yes, but I really thought we were in for a trip to Tenerife with improbable consequences. The ending, whilst not surprising, worked well. I’m curious about what happens next, but not annoyed by the lack of closure - it invites the reader to consider what they would do, what they’d want, and it’s a thorny question.

There’s a straightforwardness to the writing and bluntness to the characters that feels very Dutch. But the storytelling was also disjointed - the parts about the real life plane crash were very interesting (I was unaware of it), but felt shoehorned in, and there was an overall lack of flow.

What truly let this book down was the subplot with the special needs youths, which felt like it was written in the 90s or something (it wasn’t). The language used was frankly dehumanising, and I can’t see what it added to the story. It wasn’t limited to a single character and made for distinctly uncomfortable reading without a purpose.

An easy-to-read but underdeveloped story of grief and loneliness, which ultimately left me dissatisfied due to some misplaced expectations, though I have spent quite some time pondering the dilemma at the end.