[.ca] Those Faraday Girls (ISBN 0230018653)

The drama of a large family.:
In Part One, the story is set in Hobart, Tasmania (Australia). The year is 1979. The Faraday family consists of Leo (the father) and five sisters. Tessa, the girls' mother has been dead several years now. Juliet is the oldest. She is twenty-eight, hardworking, and loves to cook. Miranda is twenty-one, a drama queen, and rude to everyone. Eliza is nineteen, determined, and in college to study physical education and accountancy. Sadie is eighteen, always anxious and feeling like an outcast. However, the one most focused upon is the youngest. Clementine "Clem" is sixteen. She is the most level-headed in the family and three months pregnant. Maggie is born in February, 1980. All four aunts help Clem care for Maggie. Sadie, however, insists on doing the most. Clem builds her career and spends all her free time with Maggie. Problem is that Sadie begins to think of herself as Maggie's surrogate mother. It all comes to a head when Maggie is six-years-old. Sadie does something so horrible that she decides to disappear forever. The only Faraday Sadie wants contact with is Maggie and only via the local priest acting as a go-between. Once a year, Sadie sends Maggie a Christmas card. The priest brings the card to Maggie each year and forwards Maggie's reply to Sadie. In Part Two, Maggie is twenty-six. The setting begins in Greenwich Village, New York (USA). The year is 2000. Until recently, Maggie was an accountant in London. But two events within hours of each other have Maggie en route to New York and seriously considering a career change. Leo's love of inventing has accumulated quite a bit on money. Every July the Faraday clan meets up in "the holiday house" in Ireland. This year, Leo needs Maggie's help. Leo thinks he knows where Sadie is, thanks to a private detective. If Leo is correct, Sadie has a new name, lives in Ireland (very close to the holiday house) and has a family all her own. Maggie is about to learn that every single member of the Faraday family has their own closely guarded secret. At the center of them all is Maggie. **** Author Monica McInerney is an internationally bestselling author. After reading this story, I totally understand why too. Yet unless you know slang from around the globe, you may find yourself rereading sections to figure out what some words and phrases mean. Most I could figure out by how they were used. A couple still have me wondering. Through it all, though, I came to feel as if I were part of the Faraday family. Drama, guilt, secrets, happiness, heart-breaking sorrow ... it's all in here. **** Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.