This got off to a really slow start. First there is an unnecessary introductory chapter and then there is a long bit about the family history before the main character is born. When the book finally gets going about a quarter of the way in it quickly turns into a marvellous life story.

Mostly it’s a story about Maud from Dijon who doesn’t quite fit into the social world that her mother, who is something like a poor relation out of an historical novel, wants her to be part of. The thing that seemed oddest though was that several mentions were made of it being 1971 when the core of the story takes place. The characters act like they come from an earlier time, and the timeline of the end of the story goes well past 1995 when it was written. Neither of which are that odd really now I come to write them down!

I like Brookner’s writing but find it hard to get going with sometimes.