Jane's Things

This novel tells an array of stories from the lives of Anna and her fourteen year old daughter, Jane; the two are easily among the most powerful female leads in literature. Jane, and especially her mother, tread a bloody path from the Baltic regions in the north of Europe down to the fictional village of Georgetown, somewhere in the southern hemisphere. Anna, a female Achilles, though without the vulnerable heel, and Jane, an intellectual prodigy of unshakeable coolness, are on a Grand Tour that switches between experiences of goriest violence - the fight and killing scenes involving Anna, and usually initiated by her - and ultimate sympathy, the other side: probed by Jane. Among a Dickensian mosaic of characters are Jane's friends: Edna, the islander girl, Mary, the castaway, and Stella, a young widow. This book can, and should, be read and enjoyed on many levels, because, apart from being an action-packed narrative, it is also statement about how the human species lives by fear, force, cruelty, knowledge, and fellow feeling. Setting aside such underpinnings: it is also a yarn unlike any other and not likely to be soon forgotten.