Boy, Snow, Bird

Boy, Snow, Bird – Helen Oyeyemi

(Picador, £12.99)

This is an intriguing tale of a mother, her stepdaughter and her daughter, their relationships with each other and their past. It is 1950s America and Boy Novak runs away from home and her abusive father. She ends up in Flax Hill, Massachusetts.

It is here that Boy meets Arturro and his family, who harbour their own secret history. The birth of Arturro and Boy’s daughter, Bird, forces the family to confront their past, which, in turn, leads Boy to confront her own.

This is one of those books that stays with you long after you have finished reading it, with some twists that I didn’t see coming.

Kathleen Drum, Assistant to the Chief of Staff, Crossrail