Mark Haddon's touching, highly observant latest novel highlights divided loyalties within families
Treachery for most people does not result in court cases, revenge, or murder – every day people feel betrayed in myriad tiny ways, and mostly it leads to passive aggression, disappointment or verbal conflict. And sometimes, even, it can yield a positive reality check.
This is the rich terrain of Mark Haddon’s moving new novel The Red House. Like his The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and A Spot of Bother, it revolves around familial strife. Unhappily married couple Dominic and Angela take their three children – young Benjy and older teens Alex and Daisy – to stay in a rural cottage with Angela’s brother Richard, his second wife Louisa and her manipulative teenage daughter Melissa. All have secrets…
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