[ About An Unlikely Visitor ]
MARGARET THINKS HER TIME IS UP… BUT MAYBE HER TIME IS NOW?
Things have been hard since her husband Derek died, and they never really got over the disappearance of their daughter, Jeanie, all those years ago.
Despite everything, they built a lovely life together… it’s just starting to feel impossible for Margaret on her own.
Then one day, Margaret returns home to an unlikely visitor, and together they set out to discover what really happened to Jeanie.
Perhaps if you knock on enough doors, you might find another end to your story…
[ My Review ]
‘If you’ve lived in a house for long enough, it becomes a keeper of all your memories, like a giant suitcase, it holds them’
An Unlikely Visitor by Joanna Cannon published June 4th with The Borough Press and is described as ‘funny and poignant’. If you have previously read any of Joanna Cannon’s books you will know that you are about to embark on quite an emotive journey when you pick up her latest novel.
Margaret, aged seventy-four, is tired. Three months following the death of her beloved husband Derek, she is floundering, unable to find any motivation in her days. A visit to her GP leaves her even more disillusioned as he tries to convince her that she has so much to live for, explaining that the world is now her oyster. But Margaret sees the world as more ‘difficult and unhelpful’. Being an unexpected widow has left her ruminating on her mortality and how as human beings ‘you realise that all the things you believe to be forever are only really just passing through. At the end of the day, the life we are so certain must be ours is only ever lent to us for awhile.’
Margaret and Derek suffered a great tragedy many years ago when their darling daughter Jeanie went missing on an early morning paper round. The truth of Jeanie’s mysterious disappearance remained an unsolved case, leaving Derek and Margaret in a very strange kind of limbo. As time passed by, this hole in their lives remained but they had to build a new life around it. They kept busy, involving themselves in various community activities but that craving for closure always remained a shadow in their lives.
Now, in the present day, Margaret is facing the monotony of her life and she is quite lost, until one day she has a very unlikely visitor. This person provides Margaret with a new lease of life and together they attempt to finally unravel the mystery of what really happened to Jeanie. As the chapters unfold snippets of Margaret and Derek’s earlier years are revealed exploring their love and courage through those most horrendous of times.
With a very compassionate and sensitive hand, Joanna Cannon takes the reader on a powerfully emotional journey. An Unlikely Visitor is a book that will resonate personally with many as we have all experienced grief at some point in our lives and as we age, this becomes even more relevant. With a very affecting storyline, and the most poignant and heart-stirring prose, Joanna Cannon beautifully explores the power of love, grief, regret and the bonds of marriage. An absolutely stunning novel!
[ Bio ]
Joanna Cannon’s first two novels, The Trouble with Goats and Sheep and Three Things about Elsie, were both Sunday Times bestsellers and Richard and Judy picks. She worked as a hospital doctor before specialising in psychiatry, and lives in the Peak District with her family and her dog.
