Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

Rill Foss and her four siblings live a hand-to-mouth existence on their shanty boat Arcadia with their loving parents Briny and Queenie. Rill is happy being a water-gypsy, roaming up and down the wide Mississippi, unaware of her poverty. Until one terrible night when Rill, being the oldest at twelve, is left in charge of Camellia, Lark, Fern and baby Gabion. Men come and they are taken. It is 1930’s America and there is a trade in selling children illegally to childless couples prepared to pay a high price, particularly if they are fair-skinned and blonde. Although fictional, ‘Before We Were Yours’ is based on true events surrounding the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, and the notorious Georgia Tann, who ran a ruthless adoption racket. Lisa Wingate’s tale has the strength of authenticity and is a truly distressing story. Run along two timelines, a modern protagonist Avery Stafford, who is being groomed for high-class politics, and Rill’s account, at first it is not clear why these two stories have anything to connect them until the plot gradually gathers pace. Avery’s struggles with conscience versus ambition, is less gripping, and I felt I couldn’t wait to get back to Rill’s tale: she has a strong, earthy voice and her frustration with her own powerlessness as she tries to protect her siblings, is moving. It is horrifying what Georgia Tann was able to get away with, praised at first as a great champion of modern adoption in Thirties America. You feel deeply for those destroyed families, whose only crime was to be poor and powerless. Good page-turning read.

The Sealwoman’s Gift by Sally Magnusson

A venture into fiction from Sally Magnusson (daughter of Magnus Magnusson of Mastermind fame) as she gets in touch with her Icelandic roots, which makes for very original reading. Based on events in 1627 when Barbary pirates raided the Icelandic coast abducting large numbers of locals and selling them in the north African slave markets. We follow the fortunes of one woman in particular, Asta the wife of the local preacher. Godfearing and lacking in experience of the world, Asta finds all her beliefs tested as she gives birth on the slave ship. Reaching Algiers, half way across the world, she watches her community scattered and mistreated, her family broken, many of them converting to the Muslim faith to survive. It is an extraordinary story of loss and strength, and the contrasting setting of Icelandic bitter-cold poverty against tropical balm and fruitfulness is beautifully described. Although a famous event in Iceland, this slave-trade is not much known outside and the book makes for evocative reading. Asta’s husband Olafur is tirelessly working to raise funds from a depleted island to pay the hostage ransom for his family’s return, but we, as readers allowed to know more, fear that even if he succeeds, it may not be the homecoming he wishes. Asta has a fondness for Icelandic myth, telling and retelling stories in the narrative, but even so, the book title seems somewhat adrift. But a wonderful read.

Our House by Louise Candlish

Fi Lawson returns home one evening to discover her house has been sold to another well-to-do couple entirely without her knowledge. And where is her estranged husband Bram? House fraud has been on the rise, and this is an intriguing look at the whole issue of property, prices, and how much importance should we attach to it. Louise Candlish raises the question ‘investment or burden?’ and captures perfectly the wavering between smug satisfaction and anxiety of the householders of Trinity Avenue. As stunned Fi tries to work the problem, we delve into the back story to discover how our couple got to this point of disintegration. Behind the perfectly trimmed hedges of Trinity Avenue lurk secrets and lies enough to hold the plot as we slide firmly into surburban noir. Although property obsession may seem a London-centric story, Candlish is really asking the question, ‘how far would you go to protect your home and family?’ And I guess that’s something we can all relate to.