It’s nice to stumble upon a review published some time ago under our radar!
Thanks to Marcie McCauley and the temz Review for the review of Sharon English’s Night in the World (May 2022). McCauley captures the novel’s essence so well!
From the review: “English’s settings are vivid and credible. How her characters inhabit them reveals her storyteller’s prerogative: “The trick to finding caterpillars that don’t want to be found lies in looking not for the creatures themselves, but their traces: chewed or drilled leaves, odd shapes that stand out in the mass of foliage.” She doesn’t display her thematic focus on a board with pins: wings splayed and properties itemised. She focuses more on absence than presence, backdrop rather than foreground, so the reader explores new perspectives too. In a fractured marriage, for instance, the dialogue with the spouse left behind to manage a household and young child illuminates the space previously occupied by a partner. It’s like that view of a city, turned inside out.”