An orchestral, richly textured portrait of interconnected middle-class Black lives in contemporary London . The story is about the the relationship between a mother and her children as they navigate their life after their husband/father’s death in London. Another aspect of the book that I wasn't too sure whether I felt okay about it or not was the references to Grenfell. It was far away from here, out in the fields near the edge of Benin City, a little house, long in the dreaming, which her brother had been building for her for when it was time to go home to Nigeria. Over the ensuing months the family contends with a range of disputes stemming from and running alongside this development.

Several characters were opaque to the reader – until the end of the book when Evans removed our veils. I also found Alice’s story heartbreaking as I read about her hopes of a new life in London after moving to Nigeria, only for that to be crushed in a loveless relationship.The book opens, alongside the Grenfell Tower fire, with another fatal fire on the same evening – Cornelius, living on his own and increasingly suffering from dementia, falls asleep and his lit cigarette causes his death. Lke many other reviewers, I hadn't realised that this was a sequel of sorts to 'Ordinary People' and I was delighted when it became apparent partway through. A House for Alice is a story told in lyrical prose of love, loss, and the loneliness of people struggling to find a home/a place where they belong.

This book is both political and beautiful, grounded in real world events but it also reads like a poem. I put the book down for several days on three separate occasions, reading some interesting novels in between, and frankly, would have abandoned it entirely were it not to be discussed in our book group.through the delicacy of her [Evans's] prose, the deftness of her dialogue and the clarity of her observations, she manages to create a novel that measures up to life. Melissa just wants to keep the peace between family members while she continues to put the pieces of her life back together following her marriage breakdown. The Grenfell Tower fire serves as a central point around which the stories of loss and resilience revolve.