Isa and May

The curiously named Isamay, a young would-be academic, is trying to write a coherent thesis about grandmothers in history ƒ?? from Sarah Bernhardt and George Sand, to the matriarchal Queen Victoria ƒ?? while being constantly surprised by the secrets that her own family, and in particular her two very different grandmothers, have been keeping. An only child, she is named after her two grandmothers, Isa and May, who have formed and influenced her in very different ways, and are jealous of each other. Isamay is almost thirty, and despite having always said she didnt want children herself, finds her biological clock is ticking and that she is pregnant.

Margaret Forsters engrossing new novel, set in the present, is about grandmothers and their potentially powerful role in family life, about nature vs. nurture, bloodlines, and bridges across generations.(less)