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The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
by Maggie O’ Farrell
Headline Review. Pages 245. £6.00

Edinburgh in the 1930s. The Lennox family is having trouble with its youngest daughter. Esme is outspoken, unconventional and repeatedly embarrasses them in polite society. Even Kitty, Esme’s beloved sister, is beginning to lose patience. Something will have to be done.

Years later, in the same city, a young woman named Iris Lockhart receives a letter informing her that she has a great-aunt in a psychiatric unit who is about to be released. Iris has never heard of Esme Lennox and the one person who should know more, her grandmother Kitty, is too adrift in her own memories to answer Iris’s questions. What could Esme have done to warrant a lifetime in a institution? And how is it possible for a person to be so completely erased from a family’s history? The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox is a stunning depiction of a life stolen and reclaimed: an outstanding achievement from one of our finest novelists.

Every Mother’s Son
by Lyn Andrews
Headline. Pages 410. £32.99                                     

Molly Keegan and Bernie O’Sullivan have been friends forever. As young girls they left Ireland seeking exciting new beginnings in Liverpool. And now, as young women, they are marrying their sweethearts and looking forward to enjoying the lives they’ve worked so hard to build. But as the Liverpool Blitz begins, it seems as if their dreams are about to be destroyed.

Night after night, horrific bombing tears the city apart. Every day Molly and Bernie struggle to keep their families safe. As wives and mothers, both know that they could face great tragedy. But they also know that their friendship, and their love for their husbands and sons, will give them the strength to find happiness they deserve.

The Indian Masters
by Bill Ricquier
                                                           Lotus Collection, Roli Books
                                                  Pages 209. Rs 295

India has given the world some of the most exciting cricketers in the history of the game. This book looks at 15 of the finest. Besides playing at the very highest level of cricket (for England, or later, India) all of these players have enjoyed superb careers in English domestic cricket and are admired exponents of the game. With personal and playing biographies, detailed statistics and many superb illustrations, The Indian Masters will be of enormous interest to cricket lovers everywhere. The book looks at K.S. Ranjit Singhji, K.S. Duleep Singhji, Nawab of Pataudi Senior, Vinoo Mankad, Faroukh Engineer, Nawab of Pataudi Junior, Srinivas Arachavan Venkataraghavan, Bishen Singh Bedi, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Dilip Doshi, Ravi Shastri, Mohammed Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble.

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