7)Ĭertainly, when Romilly, who lives alone with her idiosyncratic artist father in a tumbling down farmhouse in Suffolk, a place rich in history but also behind by the forward march of time too, begins to look for the answers, it’s with a sense that she’ll come to understand why her father has changed so much. How about Captain Montgomery of the Second Regiment?’ Montgomery seemed satisfied with his name, and curled up happily on the quilt.” (P.
‘You look like someone important,’ I said, ‘and important people have long names. I tipped the kitten onto the bed, and studied him. The first time I opened it, it showered dust all around me, and I walked the length of the room, holding it above my head in a sedate manner, pretending I was as posh as its previous owner. There were dustsheets over the furniture, and in the corner, a pretty parasol leant against the wall as if the young lady it had belonged to had left it there moments before. “When Dad had first shown me my room, I spent the entire day in there, not daring to believe all this space belonged to me. We are all hardwired to find answers in the face of gnawing, looming uncertainty, it’s something that has enabled humanity to be as successful as we are, but being pushed by an insistent inner need to unearth answers can often find itself coming hard up against our fear of what we’ll find when we do. What she doesn’t know is what awaits down this garden path and where it will all lead you suspect she may still have started down the road anyway because the need for answers is that pronounced and impelling, but you wonder how quickly she would have run towards the eventual truths revealed if she had truly known their full extent. It is necessary and far preferable to wrapping yourself in a suffocating blanket of lies and self-delusion but getting there can be devlishly difficult, especially when like Romilly Kemp, the protagonist in Polly Crosby’s wondrously, quirkily, emotionally resonant debut novel, The Book of Hidden Wonders, you’re not even aware that it’s the truth you are actually seeking.Ĭertainly when Romilly begins to realise things are not quite right with her dad and that the man he was is increasingly far from present in their daily interactions, she simply knows she has to work out what is going on if she’s ever to feel to comfortable with life again. While there is a great deal to be said for the fact that the truth will set you free, what is often overlooked is now painful the embrace of that truth can be.
(cover image courtesy Harper Collins Australia)
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