Amazon Editorial Review

New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year

Part fairy tale, part mystery, part coming-of-age novel, this novel tells the story of Isobel Fairfax, a girl growing up in Lythe, a typical 1960s British suburb. But Lythe was once the heart of an Elizabethan feudal estate and home to a young English tutor named William Shakespeare, and as Isobel investigates the strange history of her family, her neighbors, and her village, she occasionally gets caught in Shakespearean time warps. Meanwhile, she gets closer to the shocking truths about her missing mother, her war-hero father, and the hidden lives of her close friends and classmates. A stunning feat of imagination and storytelling, Kate Atkinson's Human Croquet is rich with the disappointments and possibilities every family shares.

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Very quirky novel and sometimes quite confusing. It's the story of Isobel Fairfax, a young girl in England who along with her brother Charles, loses her mother at a very early age. But what really happened to her mother? Did she really just leave or did something more sinister happen to her? Isobel also appears to have an ability to slip into different time periods including to Elizabethan times when Shakespeare was a sometimes visitor to the manor house that was once where Isobel's house is located. Although the novel has this mystical element, it’s mostly a coming-of-age-story taking place in 1960. It's also the story of her very dysfunctional family living in the suburbs who have many secrets and lies regarding the family history including what happened to Isobel's mother. The novel takes us on a journey through Isobel's childhood, journeys to the past and future, and includes some alternate realities which made me wonder what was real and what was imagined.

This was the first novel I have read by Atkinson and overall, I would recommend it and will probably be reading more by her.

Sending to glade1 in NC...a wishlist tag. Enjoy!

Received in today's mail. Thanks for the tag!

Wow - hard to pin this one down! This novel is amazing and hard to set aside, although it is not perfect. There are lots of time slips, and time jumps, and just imaginary times (?), but it is a wonderful examination of how things can be different...

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