William Leith
25 April 2013
I’d never read Janet Davey before. Now I want to read all her books.
This is the story of Anita Mostyn, “Mossy”, a young woman who works in a Mayfair art gallery. Davey is a subtle and delicate writer, and this is an excellent study of modern alienation.
Anita doesn’t quite fit in, and Davey traces this all the way back to her childhood, so we feel we know exactly what it’s like to be her, and why she makes the decisions she makes — the ill-advised trip to Bulgaria, the doomed affair with a married man.
There’s a very sad event in her past. Davey handles flashbacks beautifully.