A House for Alice: From the Women’s Prize shortlisted author of Ordinary People

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Grenfell was only 5/6 years ago and the government still have not provided the right support and after care to those involved. From there in the first part we circle around the lives of Melissa (and her tendency to date slightly abusive men), Michael and Nicole (whose marriage seems to be floundering on incompatability, but one so strong that I was less clear on why they really ended up together in the first place), Alice (and the small church of which she is part) – and some of their wider family. This is a book about love, life, interconnectedness, marriage, childhood and so many more relationships.

Makes me think of a Brueghel painting with many individuals going about their business in a London that is at times on fire. She is such a dynamic character and the author does a great job showing her conflicted feelings toward her life in the UK and her relationship with her daughters and husband. I think without that knowledge the book can be difficult to follow as characters are introduced with at best incomplete back stories otherwise – as can be seen from a number of other reviews.

I will say that there were so many characters and storylines involved it sometimes became difficult to keep them straight in my head, and it was often a battle to remain focused. In a standalone title they’d feel like a plot strand too many, and even in a follow-up they stretch the focus overly. In the early hours of June 14, 2017, the world watches as flames leap up the sides of a residential high-rise in West London, consuming Grenfell Tower and many of the lives within it. It’s a real canvas with those in the foreground - particularly Melissa, Michael and Nicole, worked up more - which is fine.

could seem an odd note, as we suddenly join Cornelius seemingly being turned away from heaven (Cornelius’s behaviour on earth, particularly towards his daughters, and the long term impact of it on their lives and relationships is a key dynamic to the novel’s later development). ARC // I have a lot of thoughts about this book - both good and bad - so I'm going to try and be a coherent as possible with this review. Evans masterfully weaves these themes into the fabric of the narrative, creating a thought-provoking and emotionally charged reading experience. I thought about times that this book almost read like linked short stories and, whilst some were stronger than others, I really enjoyed the deep dive into the characters lives told through pivotal moments.Honestly, if the author was more clear with whose perspective we were in and how the characters in the scene related to each other and Alice/Alice's daughters, I would have likely given it a whole star more. One daughter has been caring for him, but all the daughters carry the trauma of his alcoholic abuse. The central "crisis" is whether Alice remains in her comfortable life in England or goes to a new house being built for her in Nigeria. She dedicates the book to her own Nigerian mother and “all of us who have found ourselves in a strange land”.

It was far away from here, out in the fields near the edge of Benin City, a little house, long in the dreaming, which her brother had been building for her for when it was time to go home to Nigeria. A House For Alice didn't have a particularly clear storyline with the actual "house for alice" portion of the story being a fairly miniscule amount, in relation to the rest of the book.I think Evans does a great job painting a picture of each individual’s personal battles—in fact, there’s not a lot of plot here to speak of. Her prose is gorgeous and dreamlike, and her characters are fleshed out and real, even the ones whose stories are relatively peripheral. Here, Melissa shares the spotlight with her sisters, “ecologising” Carol and harried Adele, as well as Michael’s new wife, Nicole, a singer who’s more of a never-quite-was than a has-been. through the delicacy of her [Evans's] prose, the deftness of her dialogue and the clarity of her observations, she manages to create a novel that measures up to life.