Isa and May

Description

An engaging, intriguing novel which will appeal straight to Margaret Forster's heartland, about a young woman, her two very different grandmothers, Isa and May, and the secrets that families keep. Isamay's unusual name comes from her two very different grandmothers, Isa and May, who were both present at her birth and who have both formed and influenced her whole life in very particular ways. Now almost thirty, Isamay is trying to write a thesis about grandmothers in history but is instead constantly ambushed by the startling secrets her own family has been keeping. When disturbing truths are revealed that force Isamay to examine her own certainties, will her grandmothers be able to build a bridge across the generations?

Born in Carlisle, Margaret Forster was the author of many successful and acclaimed novels, including Have the Men Had Enough?, Lady's Maid, Diary of an Ordinary Woman, Is There Anything You Want? , Keeping the World Away, Over and The Unknown Bridesmaid. She also wrote bestselling memoirs - Hidden Lives, Precious Lives and, most recently, My Life in Houses - and biographies. She was married to writer and journalist Hunter Davies and lived in London and the Lake District. She died in February 2016, just before her last novel, How to Measure a Cow, was published.

Margaret Forster has always had the enviable gift of making her characters spring to life, and both Isa and May do just that -- Allan Massie * The Scotsman * A deliciously observed, dilemma-and-drama-packed read -- Helen Brown * Daily Mail * A compelling story, sometimes funny, sometimes painfully sad... All family life is here, messy, insistent and, as the author convincingly shows, as essential as breathing -- Penny Perrick * Sunday Times * A sensitive and intelligent novel with passages of beautifully modulated pathos, while being in part, hugely funny -- Matthew Dennison * The Times * [Forster] has written so brilliantly about female relationships...she can encapsulate a whole scene in a single sentence... [A] whole rich, fascinating novel -- Kate Saunders * Literary Review *