All of Us and Everything

All of Us and Everything – a book review

I’ve just finished reading All of Us and Everything by Bridget Asher and if you’re looking for a good page turner over the Christmas period, I can thoroughly recommend.

All of Us and Everything

Published through Corvus Books last month, we meet the Rockwell sisters, Esme, Liv and Ru. Their mother Augusta ruled the roost when they were children and we follow each of their stories as adults, as one by one they return to their childhood home.

Each of the women is flawed to some degree, and none of them have been particularly happy in adulthood.  They had grown up without a father figure in their lives, their mother telling them that their father was a spy who travelled the world.

I love books that swap between characters through the chapters of a book and All of Us and Everything is exactly my kind of read.  We get to know each of the sisters, and in turn their mother, as each sister’s life unravels.

The eldest daughter Esme, has lived with her husband and daughter in the school where he works.  She’d believed they were happy until he runs away with a dentist whilst on a school trip to France.  Her world, and that of her daughter Atty falls apart, and Esme is not used to being in control of everything.  Atty is very much a 21st century teenager, living life through her twitter account.  Atty is asked to leave the school after an incident with an old firearm and so she and her mother return to stay with Augusta.

The middle sister Liv, doesn’t believe in love but has tried to buy happiness by buying money and working her way through a series of relationships.  She’s an addict who’s in denial and doesn’t seem able to face the reality of the mess she’s got herself into.  When she’s evicted from her ex husbands apartment, she also ends up back at her childhood home.

We first meet Ru, the youngest daughter in Vietnam.  She’s a successful writer who appears to be running away from her fiance. She is seeking inspiration for a second book but it just isn’t materalising and as she heads back home she ends up sitting next to Teddy, one of the characters from her first book. Where will this meeting take her?

The sisters have not always had the closest of relationships but that’s all about to change. A box full of old documents relating to their father emerge, questions are asked and the truth comes out about their father and the invisible impact he’s had on all of their lives.

Without giving too much more of the plot away, All of Us and Everything shows is the intricacies of sibling love, and that of a mother and a distant father.  We join the various characters as they learn about themselves and discover what true family love means.

It’s a book I’ve enjoyed reading, and I’ve included my Amazon Affiliate link below for your reference.

disclosure:  we were sent this book in exchange for an honest review.

 

 

2 thoughts on “All of Us and Everything – a book review

  1. Great comprehensive review. It’s amazing how different you can be from your siblings, isn’t it. Not an author I’ve read before but I’ve added to my wishlist.

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