Flyleaf by Finuala Dowling

Lying quietly in Marina’s spare room, you can hear the sea, tell the tide. When I first stretched my toes down into Marina’s sheets, they encountered sand. Someone else had slept there before me, come straight to bed after a day on the beach. I curled up like a mollusc, like a purple-lipped dog whelk, and let the bleakness of my life wash over me. What would become of me?

A wonderful book. The images are evocative of life in Cape Town, certainly for anyone who's ever lived here. The story is lyrical and well-written. Violet, the main character, is a teacher that is paid by the hour. She's just separated from her husband, who got another woman pregnant, and this is her story. The book is littered with half-formed characters that you'd love to learn more about. If only Violet would just ask the right questions, then maybe you'd know. But she doesn't, and the characters remain enigmatic, as the rare glimpses and snippets of their lives that Violet sees are all that you are given. Written with the pacing of life in Cape Town [by which I mean it is slow], the writing clearly communicates the feeling of drifting on the ocean that has recently enveloped Violet's life. More enjoyably, Violet is an English teacher and the book is littered with observations, witticisms and simple lessons on the English language and how it's used.

Buy this book online at Amazon UK, Kalahari or Loot