"At nine years old, Dido has never known what it's like to be part of a proper family. Eliza, the clever but hopeless aunt who has brought her up, can't give her the normal childhood she craves. Eliza's ex, Giles, wants Dido back in his life, but his new girlfriend Julia has other ideas. Then an unexpected new love interest for Eliza causes all four to re-evaluate everything and sets in motion a chain of events which threatens to change all their lives."

As far as I could see, Dido wasn't quite as central as a character as the blurb made it sound. However, having finished the book I'm more inclined to see Dido at the heart of the book, although the book, to me, is less about Dido than it is about Eliza, Giles and Julia. But I didn't quite agree with the blurb about causation - to me it seemed that the underlying causes of various things in the novel are whatever happened to Eliza's sister Hannah when she was about ten (the reader only finds out what towards the end) and Eliza's mother dying because it sends Eliza out of her flat. I really enjoyed reading this, Patrick Gale is very good at carrying several strands of the story alongside one another and bringing them together in a way that is both surprising and convincing.