While weaving the separate strands of this story into a cohesive tapestry Smith endears us to the main couple through her descriptions of their everyday lives, thoughts, and dreams. Simultaneously, an understanding of Lucas’s family history evolves among the pages revealing a tumultuous, if slightly scandalous, past. The details of Lucas and Angela’s planned escape from this new London smacks of accounts of refugee outflows from war torn third world countries. It is this rendering of a modern western society reduced to “an oppressive place where poetry has been forced underground, theatres and schools are shut, and women are not allowed to work outside the home” which spurs thoughts on how life could change in an instant if we allow fear to overcome rationality.

Smith has won a well-deserved Arts Council Award for The Miracle Inspector. I would recommend this book to readers looking for an unconventional love story, or those interested in themes about overcoming oppression. Also, for the descriptions of poetry and art, this book would appeal to those with an interested in performing and activist arts.

Brandy Strake
Layered Pages Review Team Member