At the Table: a Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year

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We follow each of the equally flawed characters over the course of the year after the announcement and see how it affects them all. Like her father, she can hear the thoughts of the recently deceased and give voice to their final wishes and desires.

Cała sytuacja mocno odbija się na każdym członku rodziny, a do tego dochodzą jeszcze ich własne problemy. Photograph: Martina Bocchio/Awakening/Alamy View image in fullscreen Jim al-Khalili: ‘engaging and illuminating’. The subtle observations described in such intricate detail mean that this is a fly on the wall story like no other. For a novel that has virtually no plot, the characters should have been the focal point of the narrative; instead they were one-dimensional, unsympathetic, and just plain boring. Trochę wynika to z faktu, że chociaż rodzeństwo jest niewiele starsze ode mnie, ciężko było mi zrozumieć ich reakcje.Nicole is a hard working, functional alcoholic, who never shies from giving her opinion, while Jamie is reticent and prone to people pleasing. I initially wondered if any of the members of this family even actually liked each other - and if I was gonna be able to like any of them. The details of the reason for the separation are drip fed to us, as all four lives continue against the backdrop of Brexit (one of reasons people suspect as the cause of the break up) and the run up to Jamie's wedding. Potem odcina od siebie matkę, którą uważa za winną rozstania, choć… wcale nikt z rodziny nie dał jej tego do zrozumienia. Each chapter has a meal (or drink, lots of drinks) and Claire Powell's writing and characters are funny and heartbreaking and moreish .

An unsentimental exploration of love and disillusionment, At the Table is about what it means to grow up - both as an individual, and as a family. The concept is that a couple have decided to separate and their grownup children are struggling to deal with the changes that this will bring. This never felt repetitive and often felt like an easter egg when you realised where the "table" was within the chapter.In the interactions between the family members, Claire Powell has a way of showing how adults revert to childhood behaviour - acting out a role with other family members that they may have been performing for years (perhaps lacking the ability and self belief to move on? But as the siblings grapple with the pressures of thirtysomething life, their parents struggle to protect the fragile facade of their own relationship, and the secrets they've both been keeping. To watch a character to begin to suffer with depression and anxiety is tough, but when no one in the book seems to notice his mental health deteriorating is incredible hard. A gripping yet tender depiction of family dynamics, love and disillusionment, At the Table is about what it means to grow up – both as an individual, and as a family.