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book review

The Globe and Mail

Seven Days of Us

By Francesca Hornak

Berkley, 368 pages, $26

The premise of this debut novel by British journalist Francesca Hornak is delightfully madcap: a dysfunctional family is forced to quarantine themselves for seven days over Christmas at their drafty and crumbling rural ancestral estate. Olivia Birch, the eldest sister, is a doctor and do-gooder who has managed to avoid Christmas for years with the family she feels increasingly distant from as she wraps herself up in her work. This year, she has dedicated herself to treating victims of a disease called Haag (the disease is fictional; it resembles Ebola) in Liberia. Coming home is more of a culture shock than usual, and the enforced seven-day quarantine doesn't help. Her younger sister – and polar opposite – Phoebe couldn't care less about Haag victims and is instead embroiled in extravagant wedding plans with a man it becomes increasingly clear is Mr. Wrong. Her materialist obsessions bring childhood resentments bubbling to the surface. Meanwhile, family secrets are also beginning to simmer: Mother Emma has just been diagnosed with cancer and is trying keep this under wraps during the holiday quarantine and father Andrew – a journalist known for his curmudgeonly restaurant reviews – has just been contacted by a young man who says he's his long-lost son, conceived during Andrew's lost years as a war correspondent in Beirut, when it sounds like he was a much more interesting person. With its blend of humour and social conscience, this novel reminded me of another favourite debut: Helen Fielding's Cause Celeb. The one weak link is dull, grouchy Andrew. He is revealed to be more than the sum of his parts, sure, but it wasn't quite enough for me to forgive him for being such an insensitive prat. The other characters are charming, though, and Hornak's gift for storytelling is a true pleasure.

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