Kate Atkinson — Human Croquet

Doubleday Canada 1997 Paperback, 352pp. Once it had been the great forest of Lythe--a vast and impenetrable thicket of green--and here had lived the Fairfaxes, grandly, at Fairfax Manor. But over the centuries the forest had been destroyed, and the Fairfaxes had dwindled too; now they lived in 'Arden' at the end of Hawthorne Close and were hardly a family at all. There was Vinny, the Aunt from Hell, and Gordon, who had forgotten them for seven years. And there was Charles, who passed his life awaiting visits from aliens and for his mother to come back. But it is Isobel to whom the story belongs, also waiting for the return of her mother--the thin, dangerous Eliza, whose disappearance is part of the mystery that still remains at the heart of the forest. (ISBN: 9780385409353). Fair.