The Sound Mirror by Heidi James

The Sound Mirror by Heidi James.

Published 20th August 2020 by Bluemoose Books.
Read August 2020.

Tamara is on the way to kill her mother, but things are not all they seem. Tamara is not the monster here, and as she looks back on her traumatic childhood and her difficult relationship with her mother, we can see how things have come to this point.

But this is not just Tamara's story. In this book, we will get to know the life stories of Claire, with her poor working class background and Italian immigrant parents, and Ada, taken from her childhood home of India and struggling to find a new place for herself in cold, grey England - both their lives marked by war, family and the expectations placed on them.

How are these women linked and how do the reverberations of the past affect the future?

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The Sound Mirror is the second book published by Bluemoose Books in 2020, as part of the year of publishing books exclusively from women writers - after the mesmerising Saving Lucia by Anna Vaught in April 2020 (see my review here).

I went into this book cold, without reading the blurb, which I am wont to do, and for me, this is definitely the best way to read this book, as it makes it the most wonderful voyage of discovery.

Here we have the story of three women:

Claire, the child of Italian immigrants, growing up as part of a poor, working class family in Kent. The course of Claire's life is laid out for her and shaped by her childhood in the 1940s/50s, in which looking after her numerous younger siblings and working hard in her father's fruit and vegetable business are the only options available until marriage. She longs to live a different life from her worn out mother, adamant that hers will be a different fate.

Ada, newly transplanted from India to an unwelcoming post-war Britain, finding it hard to adjust to ordinary life after the pampered existence she has always known, and coming to rely on the pale features inherited from her Irish grandfather and half-truths about her heritage to carve a future in this new world - one she hopes will be free of restraint.

And Tamara, a young woman of the modern age, and yet indelibly marked by a difficult relationship with her mother, and the heritage of the blood that runs in her veins.

Who are these women, and what is their relationship to one another? As the life stories of Claire and Ada play out in the present tense, and we simultaneously follow Tamara on her journey to see her dying mother whilst reminiscing on her traumatic past, it's hard to see how their lives touch. But as a reader, you get so absorbed in their separate stories and the rhythm of their lives, cutting back and forth between them throughout, that it ceases to even be a question in your mind after a while.

So, when the connection is revealed in the most delicious fait accompli by our author Heid James it hits you with shocking force, bringing everything into focus with sharp clarity as all the myriad pieces fall into place.

This books is quite simply outstanding. The writing is superb and fully transports you into the lives of all three women - their frustrations, jealousies, yearnings, shame, and their secret rebellions against the weight of the expectation forced upon them by family, class and the drudgery of ordinary life. As the echoes of the past are collected and concentrated to be bounced forward into the future, like some monstrous titular sound mirror, it somehow proves impossible for these women to break away from the haunting legacy of their blood, no matter how hard they try, and their experiences cut you to the quick.

The Sound Mirror is one of my favourite reads this year, and it is a book that begs to be read over again as soon as you have finished, so you can extract every subtlety and shade to the absolute max. This is a book you will not want to miss and it is available to buy now from your favourite book retailer, or from Bluemoose Books direct here.

Thank you to Heidi James and Bluemoose Books for providing me with a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

From the cover of the book:

Tamara is going to kill her mother, but she isn't the villain.

Tamara just has to finish what began at her birth and put an end to the damage encoded in her blood. Quitting her job in Communications, Tamara dresses carefully and hires a car, making the trip from London to her hometown in Kent, to visit her mother for the last time. 

Accompanied by a chorus of ancestors, Tamara is harried by voices from the past and the future that reveal the struggles, joys and secrets of these women's lives that continue to echo through and impact her own.' 

The Sound Mirror spans three familial generations from British Occupied India to Southern England, through intimately rendered characters, Heidi James has crafted a haunting and moving examination of class, war, violence, family and shame from the rich details of ordinary lives.

About the author:

Heidi James lives in London and lectures at Kingston University. Her poetry, essays and short stories have appeared in numerous publications including, Mslexia, Galley Beggar Press and Dazed & Confused.