Eggshell Days
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Emmy, Niall, and Sita and Jonathan miss their train back to London from a Somerset wedding, escaping Britain's worst rail crash in sixty years. Upon reflection of their mortality, the friends reevaluate their lives, and come to a decision. They will all, along with Emmy's daughter Lila, Niall's girlfriend Kat, and Sita and Jonathan's children Jay and Asha, move into the ramshackle manor house Emmy recently inherited in Cornwall. In the idyllic setting, they hope to simplify their lives.
As renovation of the house begins, a closely-guarded secret threatens to be uncovered. The bricks and mortar of the group's long friendship starts to crumble. It soon becomes clear that fresh starts have little to do with geography, and the four of them realize that escape to the country doesn't mean escape from life's problems. As choices are made and the truth comes out, will they be able to hold their friendships together?
Touching and thoughtful, with quietly elegant writing and easily relatable characters, Eggshell Days is a novel to treasure.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
On their way back from a wedding, four old friends just miss being killed in a terrible train wreck. Their narrow escape makes them take stock of their lives, and as this rambling first novel begins, they decide to give up their London jobs and move together to the Cornish countryside. Emmy, single mother of eight-year-old Maya, has inherited a Cornish manor house called Bodinnick; Sita, her husband, Jonathan, and their three children move into one upstairs suite, and Niall, Emmy's one-time lover, moves into another. Gregson is sparing with introductory detail, so it is some time before all the various relationships spring into focus, but once they do, the novel gains momentum. Despite the characters' determination to exchange stress for bucolic contentment, troubles lurk. Competent Sita, a doctor, finds work in Cornwall, making unemployed Jonathan feel insecure. Their children hostile 13-year-old Jay, skittish nine-year-old Asha and baby Lila are a handful. Meanwhile, Emmy is realizing she isn't over Niall which is unfortunate, since Niall has taken up with Kat, a bitchy model who visits on the weekends. Niall isn't Maya's father, though he wishes he were, and the mystery of her paternity adds another layer to the story. This is less an escapist fantasy than a sprawling domestic drama, but readers willing to piece together the various relationship puzzles (and navigate the Briticisms) will enjoy Gregson's story of a group of friends struggling valiantly to make their communal experiment work.
