Delightful debuts: The Golden Boy by Patricia Finn, The Body Builders by Albertine
The Golden Boy by Patricia Finn (Corsair £18.99, 320pp)
Stafford Hopkins is a recently retired Hollywood TV executive. Stafford and his wife Agnes have left their glitzy, social Los Angeles life behind them for a long stint at their luxurious Maui estate. Neither is enjoying living on Hawaii – Agnes misses LA and Stafford has begun waking up crying.
A letter arrives informing Stafford that an old pal has died and appointed him the guardian of his three children and baby. Agnes insists they are too old to take on such a huge responsibility and that she doesn’t like other people’s kids anyway.
Despite not thinking about his buddy for decades, Stafford is drawn back in time to when they were inseparable.
An emotional rollercoaster of redemption ensues.
The Body Builders by Albertine Clarke (Corsair £16.99, 240pp)
Ada is 11 when a voice inside her head tells her that her parents are going to get divorced. Sure enough, the next day her father says that he is moving out. Ada and her mother are left alone in the family home and her mother gets a dog to replace her husband.
The dog is so anxious and miserable that her mother says it has absorbed the bitterness of their house and she had to rehome it. The voice in Ada’s head tells her that her mother had it killed.
Ada leads a lonely life and doesn’t feel connected to anything or anyone until she meets Atticus at the swimming pool and falls in love.
Ada is a unique protagonist, isolated and aloof yet desperate to form a proper relationship with her distant mother. This strange, surreal story is beautifully written and full of heart and longing.
Porcupines by Fran Fabriczki (Fig Tree £16.99, 320pp)
When Szonja arrives in Los Angeles in 1989 it is brighter than anywhere she has ever been. Szonja is Hungarian, 18, and visiting her sister.
The Berlin Wall has just fallen and this is the first time she has left socialist Budapest. Seeking adventure and excitement in the land of the free, Szonja is horrified to discover that her sister has adopted a strict religious lifestyle – one that is much more restrictive than what she left behind.
The differences between the sisters are too much and Szonja strikes out on her own. In 2001, the by now Americanised Sonia still lives in LA and is a single mum to Mila. Sonia is secretive about her family and Mila’s desperation to know her father burgeons into an obsession.
This is a brilliant book about sisters, mothers and daughters and the weight of long-held secrets.