Book review: Interpreters
By Sue Eckstein Published by Myriad Editions Author of the acclaimed debut novel The Cloths of Heaven , Sue Eckstein has come back with her second work of fiction, Interpreters . A successful return, I should add. On opening the book, we read the beginning of a (fictional) magazine article about non-traditional families. In it, Susanna and her uncle Max talk about their household and Susanna’s choice, when she was very young, to move from Africa, where she used to live with her mother, to England, where Max lived in a sort of commune. It is in this indirect way that we are introduced to Julia Rosenthal, mother of Susanna and sister of Max. It is her that we follow as, on her way to an appointment with a notary, she drives to her childhood home and lets the memories flood back. Spotted by someone she used to know when she was little, she is invited into the house she used to live in. As the morning passes and each room is explored, we learn about her mother, her father and the life she