Next Of Kin - Softcover

Trollope, Joanna

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0552997005 ISBN 13: 9780552997003

Publisher: Black Swan Books, 1997

Synopsis

Robin Meredith bought his dairy farm just before he married Caro, his enigmatic Californian wife. Now Caro has died, as much of a mystery to the Meredith family as she was when she arrived twenty years ago, leaving Robin and the rest of the family to cope with the loss. Her adopted daughter Judy feels cut adrift, while for Robin's brother Joe the despair at Caro's death is far deeper than the family suspects. Into the midst of this unhappy family comes Zoe, Judy's London friend, a catalyst for change as the realities behind the seeming idyll of a rural community become ever clearer.

About this title

Review:

Fans of Joanna Trollope's cozy, plot-driven novels like Marrying the Mistress and Other People's Children might find Next of Kin slightly forbidding. Set on a farm in the English Midlands, the book opens with a funeral. The deceased, Caro Meredith, is (or rather, was) a Californian, a lost soul who ended up on Tideswell Farm by chance, having married into the taciturn, proud Meredith clan. Her funeral finds her husband, Robin, depressed; her twentysomething daughter, Judy, furious at the world in general and at her father in particular; and her brother-in-law, Joe, hopelessly bereft. Meanwhile, Robin's father, Harry, looks on, thinking of his late daughter-in-law: "Strange woman. American. Never quite seemed able to involve herself with the farm and yet--Harry swallowed. He felt it might be an obscure and diverting comfort to mention to Robin that his new power harrow would cost over six thousand pounds, but thought he'd better not."

This gives some idea of the preoccupations and sensitivities of the Meredith mind. The farm comes first; everything else comes a distant second. Next of Kin traces how that rigid mindset is changed by a wholly unexpected agent: Judy's London roommate, Zoe. This disturbingly forthright character arrives for a weekend at Tideswell Farm bedecked in her signature purple hair, rows of silver earrings, and all-black boy's wardrobe. She declares that she likes farm life, and to Judy's horror, soon moves down from London to Tideswell, ultimately ending up in the paterfamilias's bed. As the Merediths find their old ways failing them, Zoe teaches the family how to live with her own odd mixture of honesty and lawlessness. Trollope's books usually move with a nice combination of introspection and action. Next of Kin, on the other hand, holds still--Zoe has to all but goad the Meredith family into the happy ending she has in mind. This stillness makes for a quietly and surprisingly satisfying read. --Claire Dederer

About the Author:

Joanna Trollope is a descendant of Anthony Trollope and a #1 bestselling author in England. Her ten novels include Marrying the Mistress, Other People's Children, The Best of Friends, and A Spanish Lover, as well as The Choir, and The Rector's Wife, which were both adapted for Masterpiece Theatre; and writing as Caroline Harvey, the historical novels The Brass Dolphin and Legacy of Love.

About this edition

• Publisher: Black Swan Books
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0552997005
• ISBN 13: 9780552997003
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320