Kit de Waal’s 2016 debut, My Name Is Leon, about the differing fates of two fostered half-brothers, was a critical and commercial hit. Her second novel, longlisted this month for the Women’s prize for fiction, also draws on her Irish heritage for the protagonist Mona, who is almost 60, living alone, an exile in an England that has never quite felt like home. Flashbacks gradually fill in the gaps to reveal both the tragic and the mundane events that have brought her there.
Mona is an appealing heroine, rich in skills and experience and not obviously lonely, though definitely intrigued by the elegant man living opposite whom she occasionally glimpses at his window. She sells dolls, unique collector’s items, painstakingly dressed and posed in the elaborate window of her shop. A gifted woodcarver crafts the bodies, which Mona then paints, sewing bespoke outfits for each tiny individual. Always on the lookout for items to repurpose – a broken earring she can deconstruct into a fancy button, a cut-up vinyl pencil case to turn into a pair of shiny boots – Mona has similarly constructed a miniaturised life from scraps. As her birthday approaches, she questions whether it is too late to live on a larger scale.
The picture is gradually revealed of a childhood in Ireland with the adorable father she has in some sense abandoned, and gorgeous William, who sweeps her away to a new life in England. The gushing strapline appears to promise romantic fluff: “If you lost the love of your life, what would you do to live again?” William and Karl, the gentlemanly neighbour, at first seem idealised male portraits and somewhat thinly drawn, but in scenes of real power De Waal fleshes them out with flaws, insecurities and secrets.
Considering its setting in Birmingham in the early 1970s, and the couple’s nationality, it’s not too hard to guess one dramatic plot turn. But as in My Name Is Leon, De Waal excels at bringing out the humanity of characters leading small lives on the fringe of huge social and political forces, struggling bravely not to be crushed by them. The “trick to time” is that it can expand or contract at will, and in creating a mature heroine with decades of history, De Waal has herself performed a feat of skilful compression.
- The Trick to Time by Kit De Waal (Viking, £12.99). To order a copy for £9.69, saving 25%, go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min. p&p of £1.99.
