Friday Recommendation: Apples Never Fall

Between daily Covid numbers and more press conferences than we can shake a stick at, it’s been quite a week! This little gem was just what I needed to take a break from real life and disappear into someone else’s drama. I picked up Liane Moriaty’s Apples Never Fall in the bookshop and devoured it in 24 hours. It was fabulous!

It was so quintessentially Australian I could practically smell the jacarandas as I turned each page. But Aussie or Kiwi, I think it will feel like home as you read it.

The setting is suburban Sydney and the story centres around the Delaney family. Joy and Stan have raised four children and now appear to be happily living the dream as they run their successful tennis coaching business. But then Joy leaves the children a text to say she is going “off-grid” and disappears into thin air. The questions are plenty, especially around the mysterious houseguest who showed up at the Delaney house the previous year.

The story is so tightly written and not at all what you think might happen. The structure is supreme, there is a seamless transition between viewpoints, and changes in time between the present and the past lead to the point where everything collides.

The mystery sits at the centre of the story, but the slow unveiling of the family’s lives gives the book its depth and adds to the intrigue. And of course the fabulous wit and connection to our everyday experiences adds a dimension that meant I couldn’t put it down.

If you get your hands on a copy over the weekend, I’d thoroughly recommend a read, maybe with a bar of Whitakers to seal the deal!