Blurb:
The Nautilus, a strange building shaped like the chambered shell of the same name, was built in South London in the early 1930s. Designed on Modernist and Utopian principles, it was a haven for a floating community of cosmopolitan refugees, intellectuals and artists.
Now, at the end of the century, only two of the original inhabitants still occupy their chambers - Celeste Zylberstein, joint architect with her late husband of the Nautilus, and Francis Campion, an elderly poet. Gus Crabb, a dealer in bric-a-brac, is the only other resident until, to the Nautilus, like a hermit crab seeking a home, comes Rowena Snow. Of Indian/Scottish parentage, orphaned, without family or friends, Rowena is in search of her own Utopia - or the Heligoland of her childhood imagination.

This book needs to travel... It accompanies a wishlist tag book.
Feel free to simply wild release it or pass it on at some meet-up if it doesn't meet your taste.

I was very happy to receive this surprise RABCK book along with a wishlist tag book from ApoloniaX. It looks like a book that I will enjoy. Recently, I've been keeping track of books I've read from the Booker lists and trying to read more from those lists, so this is a great choice!

I have mixed feelings about this book. It's a quiet, slow-moving story, about a woman who has never fit in well anywhere and now tries to do so in her new home, among a group of quirky characters. Mackay's writing is really beautiful. It sometimes feels pretentious and overly clever, but perhaps that's just for this particular story. I'd be interested in reading more of her work.

Found this a little protacted. Too many run on sentences for my taste. But very heartfelt writing.

Back in my hands now. Will look for another reader.

I've put this book in a Little Library near my home and hope it will find another reader.