When my friend Katie recommended The List of Suspicious Things she recommended this, too. So I requested it at the library and I really liked it, I would read something else by the same author definitely.
The book is told from three points of view, each in turn through the chapters.
First of all there's Birdie. She is around eighty years old. She lost her sister and her husband and has been alone ever since. Her sister Rose was her twin and the two of them were very close. Birdie cared for her sister. It's not told until late in the book how either her sister or her husband died, so I won't give any spoilers about that. It was really well done, though.
At the beginning of the book Birdie is told that she has advanced cancer. Her doctor, Ada, has some treatment options for her, but Birdie doesn't wait around to hear them. She absolutely doesn't want treatrment and she is determined to see her life out on her own terms.
The next point of view is Jane's. She lives with her daughter Frankie on the same street as Birdie, but they don't know each other. Yet. Frankie is around twelve and having some difficulties at school. She is portrayed as autistic and finds other children difficult. She is a little bit precocious but I will allow it as I liked her. Jane used to live with her overbearing mother, in Bristol or Bath or something, but a few years ago she broke free and went to Brighton with Frankie. She also lives a bit in the shadow of her sister, who I think was called Suzi or Suki. Suzi is travelling abroad and rarely in touch and leaves Jane to look after their mother, who is a touch hypochondriac but is also getting older and all of that. Jane is a nurse and she is basically trying her best in life.
Thirdly is Ada. She is the doctor Birdie saw and she also lives on the same street as Jane and Birdie, although they don't know it. She is Polish and has been in the UK for a few years. She left behind her parents and her sister in Poland and feels like she doesn't really fit in anywhere. She misses her family but when she has visited she feels like they treat her like a guest instead of like family. She is friends with a Polish father and son who run a local shop. They tease her and get her drunk some nights. The son wants to go out with her but she keeps saying no. But Ada has a new student internet (whose name was, improbably, Wilbur Smith, which I didn't like, but whatever) and romance might be budding between the two of them. Ada is a bit closed off though. She also reads as autistic to me; she doesn't pick up on the cues from Wilbur.
As Birdie gets more unwell the three women end up meeting and getting into each other's lives. I really liked how the book unfolded. I don't have that many criticisms of it and did like it. I'm giving it four out of five.
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