Isabelle Goodrow has been living in self-imposed exile with her daughter Amy for 15 years. Shamed by her past and her affair with Amy's father she has submerged herself in the routine of her dead-end job and her unrequited love for her boss. But when Amy, frustrated by her quiet and unemotional mother, embarks on an illicit affair with her maths teacher, the disgrace intensifies the shame Isabelle feels about her own past.
Throughout one long,sweltering summer as the events of the small town ebb and flow around them Amyand Isabelle exist in silent conflict until a final act leads ultimately to the understanding they both crave.
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[IT WAS TERRIBLY hot that summer Mr. Robertson lefttown, and for a long while the river seemed dead](Simon & Schuster, 12 April 2013, first published 1998, ebook, 317 pages, bought from Amazon, Popsugar Reading Challenge 2018, a book that was being read by a stranger in a public place)
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This is the kind of book that makes you completely fall in love with the messy, irrational, often stupid, infuriating characters;people who make you mutter to yourself and curse under your breath. Isabelle isa very complicated woman. The quiet, isolated life she chooses to lead becauseof something she did when she was too young to understand the consequencesbaffled me. She punished herself for something that was barely a crime. Her reaction when she discovers what Amy has been up to with her Maths teacher, her rage, fear and utter bewilderment broke my heart. I loved it when sheconfronted the teacher and was furious by his callous dismissal of her rage and the crime he actually committed. I wanted to hug Amy yet slap her face and shake her all at once. This is a beautiful, emotional book.
