Member Review

Set in 1984, postal sorting-office worker Jenny picks up a postcard with an incomplete address. It's from a boy to a girl on the Isle of Wight, begging her to get in touch. Acting on impulse, Jenny decides to track down the girl and spends her days off taking the ferry from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight, scouring its towns and villages on bikes to find the elusive Deborah.
In her quest to give Deborah a happy-ever-after, Jenny has to address the problems of her own marriage. She and Graham are a couple who have run out of words, bound together, yet torn apart, by the tragic loss of their younger daughter, unable to agree on freedoms for their elder daughter. Is it too late for Jenny to salvage her own long-forgotten wishes and dreams?
With an engaging heroine, descriptive writing, an intriguing plot and an emotional back story, this story had all the elements for a really good read. My one complaint is that is was too short - I felt the writer could developed this into a full-length novel quite easily, explanding on the background of Thatcher's Britain, with all its uncertainities and fears, the heart-rending emotions of family loss, the dissolution of a once-happy marriage, and the suggestion of opportunities missed.
Still, as a novella, it works well and is well worth reading.