Birthright by Charles Lambert - #bookreview #blogtour

 

She is washing the feel of the evening's cooking from her hands when Aldo calls her into the living room. She wipes her hands on a tea towel, picks up her tray and joins him on the sofa.

He is pointing at the screen. 'Isn't it remarkable?' he says. She looks across and sees a photograph of a girl with a fringe almost covering her eyes and the kind of blue-and-white-striped sweater she thinks of as Breton. The photograph has that deckled edge that photographs used to have and is set at an angle, which accentuates its vintage air.

'I don't know what you mean.' Her fingers grip the tray. For a second she thinks she might faint.

Aldo pours her a glass of wine. 'Come on, Liz, don't tell me you can't see the likeness.'

***

Sixteen-year-old Fiona inhabits a privileged world of English affluence, though her relationship with her widowed mother is strained. When she discovers an old newspaper clipping of a woman and her daughter – the little girl a mirror image of her own younger self – she becomes convinced she has a true family elsewhere. Four years later, with the help of charming fraudster Patrick, Fiona drops everything to seek out her doppelgänger in Italy.

Fiona arrives in Rome to find Maddy living hand to mouth with her alcoholic mother. Spooked by the appearance of this strange girl wearing her face and stalking her every move, Maddy wants nothing to do with her. Caught in a surreal push-and-pull, the two are both fascinated and repulsed by the oddly familiar other, each coveting a different life. But they aren’t the only ones trying to control their fate, and the two women will soon learn that people aren’t always what they seem – though blood may still prove thicker than water.

***

This is an excellent book, and I enjoyed reading it very much. As a psychological thriller it hits its target perfectly and kept me gripped throughout. In fact, the more I read, the more I wondered in which direction the author would take the story.

When Fiona travels to Italy to meet her doppelganger, Maddy, she attempts to insert herself into Maddy's life in a way that alarms Maddy and makes her very wary. The book is primarily about the chemistry and evolving relationship between these two characters, and I was fascinated by it. I could identify with the different feelings of both of them but then my sympathies would alternate between the two. It made for an enthralling and intense read.

I enjoyed the Italian setting and it made for the perfect backdrop to the drama and complex relationships, not only between Fiona and Maddy, but for the secondary characters also.

It is an intense read that has been written with intelligence and cleverness. It has left me wanting to read more of Mr. Lambert's work. I highly recommend this remarkable novel.

ISBN:  978 1913547288

Publisher: Gallic Books

Formats:  e-book and paperback

No. of Pages:  407

About the Author:

Charles Lambert is the author of several novels, short stories, and the memoir With a Zero at its Heart, which was voted one of The Guardian readers’ Ten Best Books of the Year in 2014.

In 2007, he won an O. Henry Award for his short story The Scent of Cinnamon. His first novel, Little Monsters, was longlisted for the 2010 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His novel Prodigal was shortlisted for the Polari Prize for LGBTQ writing in 2019. Born in England, Charles Lambert has lived in central Italy since 1980.

(author photo and bio. info. and book courtesy of the publisher)