When Eva’s mother abandons her on Iris’s front porch, the girls don’t seem to have much in common – except, they soon discover, a father. Thrown together with no mothers to care for them and a father who could not be considered a parent, Iris and Eva become one another’s family. Iris wants to be a movie star; Eva is her sidekick. Together, they journey across 1940s America from scandal in Hollywood to the jazz clubs and golden mansions of Long Island, stumbling, cheating and loving their way through a landscape of war, betrayals and big dreams.

Set in 1940s America, this is a thrilling and resonant novel about loyalty, ambition and the pleasures and perils of family.  Iris has grit and the determination to escape her surroundings;  she wants a different life and Eva soon becomes a part of, and important to, those new horizons. Bloom artfully covers such detail in so few words that it read like a huge sweeping novel rather than the slim volume it was. Clever and deft writing, sharp and witty by turns, the characters and their circumstances are finely observed and I cared about each one of them, willing them to overcome the obstacles that littered their paths.

Iris and Eva are full of guts and the determination to not only  survive, but thrive. The book explores what is possible when we refuse to give up and are willing to be flexible and adapt to conquer life’s twists and turns. Something that resonates with the challenges we face at the moment.

A totally satisfying and superb read. I look forward to reading more of Amy Bloom’s writing now that I’ve found her.

www.grantabooks.com