Mother Country (by Libby Purves)

I am so pleased that I decided earlier this year to re-read my novels by Libby Purves. I acquired and read most of them about fifteen or sixteen years ago, and on the whole liked them very much. After all this time, I find that I have almost entirely forgotten the plots and the characters, and am enjoying them all over again.

‘Mother Country’, which I first read in 2004, is about a young American businessman called Alex. We first meet him in the prologue, set in 1974, although his name isn’t given at the time. He’s a baby, neglected and dirty, living in a squat with his drug-addicted mother and a couple of other people. His father breaks in and rescues him in a dramatic scene, which ends quite abruptly as they leave.

The action then moves forward to the spring of 2001, and a funeral. Alex is mourning the loss of his grandmother, comforting his grandfather. He works for a trouble-shooting software company and lives on his own, although he’s always been somewhat curious about his past. His grandparents brought him up; there’s some mystery attached to the loss of his father, when he was only two, but his mother’s side of the family is completely unknown.

Alex’s grandfather gives him an old diary with some journal entries written by his father in 1974, and they pique his curiosity even more. He has always rather hankered after England, building up a romanticised view of it from literature and films, and would like, one day, to find his roots and perhaps his mother’s grave. Then he’s sent on a work assignment to the UK, and decides to take a bit of holiday, and perhaps see if he can discover anything…

Most of the story takes place in England, as Alex works to solve a company’s problems, and meets a variety of different people. He’s disappointed in the greyness, and the concrete, but manages to find a few castles and some rustic scenery. He makes friends with a farmer and his wife, in the midst of the foot-and-mouth crisis that destroyed many farms in that period; the book is firmly set in the historic context. He’s a likeable young man, if a bit naive at times, and I thought the gradual acceptance of Englishness worked well.

Some of what he does when troubleshooting doesn’t feel entirely authentic; I don’t know if that’s just because technology has changed so much in the past couple of decades, or whether the author was writing a little outside her comfort zone when explaining in some detail what Alex does to solve problems. I tried to follow, but found myself skimming that part which didn’t really add to the story anyway.

But other than that, I liked it very much indeed. It’s quite an emotive story; the revelation given to Alex is one I had guessed much earlier (or, perhaps, subconsciously remembered - I don’t know which) but I had totally forgotten what happens later in the book, just after a significant character decides to admit to some lies she had told twenty-seven years earlier.

The writing is crisp, emotive in places, and (other than the work descriptions) paced exactly right for my tastes. I had entirely forgotten how the novel ended, and although it was a little abrupt, I thought it was well done, encouraging, and leaving a positive note for the future.

Definitely recommended.  'Mother Country' is no longer in print in book form, but is available for the Kindle. It can often be found second-hand, too.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews