Elizabeth’s shorter accounts are set during her brief stay in a hospital; fully adult, she sees herself as “dying of boredom” and an “old nuisance” on the ward with limited tolerance for other patients. It's beautifully written and so finely crafted; told in the kind of prose I most admire because it takes what appears to be complicated and makes it clear.

There are satisfying parallels in that, on multiple occasions but in slightly different ways, a child attaches to an older person or an adult stands in as a guardian for a neglected child. While she's away, she entrusts school-aged Clara to feed the housecat, Moses, a ritual that the young girl comes to cherish since her teenage older sister has run away, plunging her house into crisis. She is our second narrator (on an almost but not quite contemporaneous timeline with the other two). It takes true talent to represent these characters, all of different ages, and make them come alive for the reader.Many examine intimate relationships placed under stress, and through them meditate on ideas of freedom and obligation, or on what makes us human,” said Jasanoff.

Lawson has complete control over her material and does a great job displaying human emotions in a calm, but intense manner - the comparisons to Anne Tyler are fully justified. Ishiguro’s story of an AF, or “artificial friend”, which is bought as a companion for a 14-year-old girl, is one of 13 novels in the running for this year’s Booker, the most prestigious books prize in the UK.

Lawson’s books area pleasure to read—they conjure a space where quiet reflection and owning your past mistakes bring gentle rewards;they feel kind and wise and brimful of empathy. Elizabeth’s sections are often addressed to her late husband, Charles, in the second person – always a difficult voice to pull off, it’s the only time the novel feels forced. The timing is auspicious – Liam is in the midst of his own crisis, his recent divorce having made him realize he also hates his job as an accountant, which he’s quit. It's no surprise that Clara has a lot of blunt questions for Liam and his presence in Moses' home and life. The books world has long complained about the Booker’s decision to open its doors to American authors.

Then again, with this premise, you’ll be forgiven for thinking this novel is aiming to be a thriller or a whodunit or any genre along those lines. These three come together in a way that shows that each person matters, even if their gifts aren't apparent to them without the help of the others. Told through three distinct, compelling points of view, the novel cuts back and forth among these unforgettable characters to uncover the layers of grief, remorse, and love that connect them.What Lawson aims to explore here is family, especially mothers, and the ways – to bastardize Larkin’s famous phrase – they can mess you up. This is clearly wrong — Mrs Orchard was only going into hospital for a few days and asked Clara to look after Moses, her cat. Striving to quell memories and her “savage love,” she revisits the collapse of the “quiet, comfortable, sheltered life” she led with her husband. They are magnificently well-structured, simple but profound, with characters who stay with you forever. Orchard loves kids and has known Clara all her life and she delights in the way Clara won't take anything at face value.