Book Review: A House for Alice by Diana Evans

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

The story begins with two tragedies- nonagenarian Cornelius Winston Pitt eager to live to see his one-hundredth birthday breathes his last after a fire engulfs his home. A fire in a high-rise residential apartment in West London on the same night left several residents homeless and many dead.

In the aftermath of Cornelius’ death, his estranged wife Alice and her three daughters Adel, Carol, and Melissa are left to grapple with their loss. Alice hopes to leave London and return to her native country Nigeria where she is building a home. As the story progresses, we meet Alice’s children and their families and how they cope with the death in their family and Alice’s impending plans to leave – old wounds, resentments, and disappointments rise to the surface and what is left to be seen is whether the family is brought closer or does tragedy and loss tear them further apart.

A House for Alice by Diana Evans is a well-written story that revolves around themes of family, tragedy, and how the definition of home can change over time. The story is set in 2017 and incorporates the real-life tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire in West London in the narrative and explores socio-political themes and topics like immigration, culture and racism. I should mention, I was unaware that this story was a sequel ( of sorts ) to one of the author’s previous works. My review is based on my experience with this book alone. There are several characters we need to keep track of, and it is often difficult to keep note of how they are related to one another. While I did like the writing and the character development, I was somewhat disappointed with the way the story flowed. I also found the short segment on Cornelius’ afterlife experience a tad disjointed with the overall narrative. The story is more about the family, the dynamics between the family members and though we go get a glimpse into Alice’s yearning to return to her native country, this aspect could have been explored in more depth. Overall, I thought that the story had potential but was not as emotionally impactful as I hoped.

Many thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage & Anchor and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.