Sprawling, yet intimate, Atkinson's first novel captures the complexity of families and the challenges of mothering. Her women move doggedly forward letting nothing stop their motion. Filled with details her story slows for nothing, skimming through death and life's passages.

While she is a good and engaging writer, I found the back and forth time line narrative to be distracting. It made it difficult to bond with the characters who peak in and out of the story. You can look back by the end of the book and put the pieces together but by then it was to late for me to care.