CULTURE EDITION Book Club Dive into this month’s reads, from enthralling myths to joyful summer escapes
Words CHARLOTTE GRIFFITHS
EVENINGS AND WEEKENDS
OISÍN MCKENNA
A summery, seductive love letter to life in London, this unputdownable novel introduces us to thirty-something Maggie and partner Ed in 2019, as the couple are on the cusp of quitting expensive Hackney for a cheaper and more achievable life in Basildon – near to where they both grew up. Maggie is newly pregnant and being closer to their families makes sense for their futures, but leaving this sparkling, intoxicating metropolis proves harder than they first thought. Is having a baby the next adventure, or the end of life as they know it? Maggie needs to tell her best friend Phil that she’s leaving the city, but before she can reach him, Phil bumps into Ed in Liverpool Street station on the edge of doing something unexpected – should Phil tell Maggie? He wrestles with this, alongside whether he should quit his soul-sapping job and confusion about growing feelings for his flatmate Keith, who’s technically in an open relationship but is unavailable in the way Phil wants – or is that exactly what he wants? Meanwhile in the suburbs, Phil’s mum Rosaleen is trying to meet up with her son to tell him face to face about her recent cancer diagnosis, yet his slippery, ever-moving schedule and shifting priorities keep him beyond her grasp. Saturday night looms: will everything come together as planned, or will it come crashing down around their ears? Or, more painfully to admit, will life just keep rolling on whatever happens, like the silent Thames which stars at the start of this novel? The duo’s decisions ripple out, interfering and aligning with their friends’ and families’ lives in a series of beautifully drawn vignettes. You’ll long for some post- work drinks outside busy pubs on balmy evenings, that feeling of everyone looking for something to happen – as McKenna puts it – in pursuit of the hypothetical, myriad possibilities on offer to those lucky enough to live near the centre of our capital city.
18 MAY 2024 CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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