Sunday Forrester lives with her sixteen-year-old daughter, Dolly, in the house she grew up in. She does things more carefully than most people. On quiet days, she must eat only white foods. Her etiquette handbook guides her through confusing social situations, and to escape, she turns to her treasury of Sicilian folklore. The one thing very much out of her control is Dolly - her clever, headstrong daughter, now on the cusp of leaving home.
Into this carefully ordered world step Vita and Rollo, a couple who move in next door, disarm Sunday with their charm, and proceed to deliciously break just about every rule in Sunday's book. Soon they are in and out of each others' homes, and Sunday feels loved and accepted like never before. But beneath Vita and Rollo's polish lies something else, something darker. For Sunday has precisely what Vita has always wanted for herself: a daughter of her own.
All The Little Bird-Hearts by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow was published by Tinder Press on 2 March 2023. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour
Sunday Forrester is one of the most carefully and beautifully created characters that I've come across in a very long time. Her story is one filled with joy, with anguish, with difficulties, but always with honesty. This is an absolute wonder of a book, I was enraptured from the opening paragraphs, right up until the ending. My heart broke for Sunday, I laughed with her, and I discovered so much.
Sunday and her teenage daughter live in the house that Sunday grew up in. She lived there with her parents and her sister, none of whom are still with us. Dolly's father; known to readers by Sunday's name for him; The King, is now married to someone else. The King's parents own a local farm shop and garden centre business and Sunday still works there. Dolly is bright and confident and getting ready for her exams, in preparation for a future life at University.
Sunday is neither bright nor confident. She has very quiet days, on those days she will only eat white food. Sunday lives her life by the rules set down in an old-fashioned book on etiquette, never straying far from those instructions and often getting herself into trouble because of it.
Sunday has always been a little different. Her own mother couldn't put up with her funny little ways, only her sister understood her. Her own daughter Dolly is used to her, although is often perplexed by the plain chicken breast and mashed potato served up for dinner.
And then, one day, Sunday meets Vita. Vita and Rollo are a wealthy, glamorous London couple who've moved into the holiday let next door. Vita thinks nothing of popping in to see Sunday, dressed in pyjamas, or a ballgown, drinking milk from the bottle and smoking her endless cigarettes. Sunday and Dolly are soon swept along by this couple, arriving every Friday evening for dinner. Eating delicacies from Harrods, being treated to the finest champagne.
However, things are never quite as they seem and it becomes clear that it's not Sunday who interests Vita the most, but her daughter Dolly.
Dolly begins to adopt Vita's way of speaking, wearing clothes just like hers, giggling with her in corners and taking trips to London with them.
Sunday can see her daughter changing but has little control over it. She can do nothing to stop it, but is so aware of it. Despite her difficulties with communication and language, Sunday is shrewd and wise and she knows Dolly better than anyone else.
This is a skillfully written debut from an author who is very talented. Her clear and concise insight into the working of the autistic brain and the barriers felt by Sunday are eye opening, and often quite heart breaking.
All The Little Bird-Hearts is such a glorious read, I loved every single page. Highly recommended.
Like her protagonist, Sunday, in ALL THE LITTLE BIRD-HEARTS, Viktoria is autistic.
She has presented her doctoral research internationally, most recently speaking at Harvard University on autism and literary narrative.
Viktoria lives with her husband and children on the Kent coast.
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