Unnecessary words are frequently added: ‘as best as we can’ and ‘outside of the law’, while necessary ones are omitted: ‘she peered out her window’. Some examples are: ‘Speak with’ rather than ‘speak to’ ‘Cerridge’ for carriage Eggplant Candy shop ‘Turniket’ instead of tourniquet At one point, the narrator describes how her putative brother: ’took them off me’, referring to multiple gifts as opposed to jewellery or garments. However, expression (and some pronunciation) is clunky throughout and does not bear reading aloud well.

The narrator’s voice and accent is unobtrusive (a good thing for any audio performer). When she does suddenly come across her father, the time travelling somehow instantly becomes something that can be done by choice, both to and fro, according to his implications (although this is not explained and he seems to work it out with her), which has not been the case at any point until their meeting. I accept that it’s a fantasy tale and so not intended to be believable in the usual sense of course, but additional, unrooted, layers like this just take the work into the ridiculous. Lip service to its strangeness happens later on, but the juxtaposition of it and her present-day life is never really explored in any meaningful way. In addition, the narrator has had no advance warning or previous experience/expectation of time travel and yet she only really expresses acceptance of it. There’s an incomprehensible and unexplained expectation by the narrator that she will find her parents in the past, despite that it’s unclear for a good part of the early chapters whether they have died or are simply absent.

This is a strange book that has had some energy invested into the writing, but yet still falls somewhat short.

Fifteen Postcards by Kirsten McKenzie