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BOOK REVIEW: Hello from the Gillespies

Book editor Kerre McIvor reviews Monica McInerney’s new novel.
Hello-from-the-Gillespies

For more than 30 years, Angela Gillespie has sent an end-of-year letter to her family and friends around the world, updating them on her family’s activities.

The letters are always positive and upbeat – ever since she met her husband Nick, and moved to the Australian outback to live on his family’s sheep station, Angela has felt like the luckiest girl in the world.

Life got even better when the children arrived; first twin girls, then another daughter and suddenly out of the blue, a son. But this year things are different.

Angela is worried that her husband has fallen out of love with her. Nick is spending a lot of time, and money, with an Irish girl online who is helping him trace his Celtic ancestors.

Her daughters have all come home – first, Genevieve, who was fired from her job as a make-up artist for a shocking indiscretion, then her twin, Victoria, lost her job as a producer after the (married) radio announcer she was having an affair with delivered a foul-mouthed drunken rant on air. Lindy, the third daughter, is in debt, depressed and unable to stop crying, and Ig, the 10-year-old baby of the family, has an invisible friend who seems more real to him than his corporeal family.

So Angela bares her soul this year and tells it like it is. On re-reading her letter, however, Angela is shocked. There is no way she can share her innermost fears with her friends and relatives. She resolves to delete the email and start again – but when Ig slices off the top of his finger, Angela and Ig spend the night at hospital and the Christmas email is sent out in all its raw honesty.

The rest of the novel is about what happens next and it’s a charming, heart-warming read. The characters are marvellous, the plot cracks along and McInerney ties up all the loose ends nicely. A wonderful read.

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