Evelyn works in a laundromat and watches the people in the community, whilst keeping a low profile herself. She looks for opportunities to help people, and when she befriends a child who comes to the laundromat with his mother, she sets out to help them.
I enjoyed the writing, especially the characterisation, but I felt that I wanted to know more about Evelyn’s background and her “other” lives. As The AU Review states “Be prepared for strangeness that never gets explained, and multiple sub plots that have varying degrees of depth to them.” and “Hinton has produced a beautiful (if sometimes quite saccharine) treatise on loneliness in big cities where people are everywhere but fail to connect with one another.”
“It was probably how the astronauts felt when they walked on the moon, she surmised, as she slowed her steps to let the isolation seep in.”
Quotes:
“Evelyn decided that things were best the way they were. Kids were so sensitive to all the facial expressions and actions of grownups. There were so many dances she couldn’t keep up. She had to encourage the smallest of things, smile when she didn’t feel like it, avoid saying what she thought, redo things properly after being ‘helped’, pretend she was fine when she wasn’t.”
“Evelyn stood and stared at the colour swatches in the paint store. It wasn’t her first time. Last time she had to navigate all the whites.”
“Regardless of her state of mind, Evelyn always pushed weariness down to the bottom of her boots rather than enter forced unwelcome conversation.”
Author: Hilde Hinton – Co-founder of Love Your Sister charity supporting treatment for all cancer patients.
BOOK SNAPS - for readers 