Reluctantly Home

Reluctantly Home is the fourth stand-alone novel by British author, Imogen Clark. In 1979, aspiring actress Evelyn Mountcastle lands a plum role in a new police TV drama series, and discovers she is pregnant. The architect of these mutually exclusive life-changing events is the same. Faced with a dilemma, Evie makes a choice that feels like a retrograde step, leaves her career in London and returns to Southwold and the house in which she grew up, the place she'd been so determined to escape ten years earlier.

In 2019, the aftermath of a fatal accident sees Pip Appleby, a leading human rights barrister at one of the best chambers in London, retreating to her childhood bedroom on her parents' Southwold farm, the place she'd worked so hard to escape ten years ago. Her resolved intention to return to her London life cannot be realised while she suffers nightmares and flashbacks and is ambushed by panic attacks.

"She had always defined herself by what she did rather than by who she was, by what she wore on the outside instead of what was happening on the inside. Status had shaped each part of her, moulding her into what she had become. So where did that leave her now it was all gone?"

While trying to heal, Pip volunteers at the Have A Heart charity shop. The diary she unpacks one day from a box of donations shouldn't go in her bag, but she is instantly fascinated by the story told within, a tale of a sweet three-year-old daughter, a loving mother and a cruel aunt. By the time Pip has read all of Evie Mountcastle's account of 1983, she can see some contrasts, but so many parallels, with her own life that she wants to meet this tragic figure. She has so many questions!

The woman she finds is reclusive and less-than-friendly. But Pip is determined, and Evie is intrigued. Can these two broken souls help to repair each other?

While some parts of Clark's plot may be predictable, it is the characters and their interactions that are the strength of this novel: two women struck from their promising lives and laid low; a couple of real cads, one of whom contributes to the "me too" phenomenon via the casting couch; but also some examples on manhood at its best, true knights. The story touches on PTSD and hoarding, but also highlights the difference between accepting your lot and appreciating what you have. A thought-provoking and uplifting read. This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing.