Underlying Loretta’s narrative is a hope that by telling her story she will be able ‘to dump [her] inheritance’ (something her mother also attempts by disposing of her personal possessions: ‘Zo, she said. There goes history.’) Nevertheless, Loretta understands the difficulty of separating oneself from one’s past. For her, ‘Even if we are not awake to them, our forebears possess us.’ Loretta is possessed by the past, but desires the freedom to choose her allegiances. Discovering her grandparents’ journals, she determines that ‘the manuscripts were mine ... [t]hey spoke to me’. Thus, the desire for one separation – from her mother – leads to another inherited alliance.

The scope of this novel is ambitious; although it at times falls short of this ambition – the framing narrative of a meditation retreat, for instance, seems forced – it is a pleasure to read Angel’s poetic prose.