Jojo Moyes

Now published in the US for the first time, an early novel by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Me Before You, After You, and Still Me.

The Peacock Emporium

In the Sixties, Athene Forster is the most glamorous girl of her generation. Nicknamed the Last Deb, she is also beautiful, spoilt and out of control. When she agrees to marry dashing young heir Douglas Fairley-Hulme her parents breathe a sigh of relief. But within two years rumours have begun to circulate about Athene's affair with a young salesman. Thirty five years on, Suzanna Peacock is struggling with her glamorous mother's legacy. At odds with her father and his second wife, struggling in a stalled marriage, she returns to the place of her birth to find that the ghost of her mother, in differing ways, still haunts them all. The only place she finds comfort is in her shop, The Peacock Emporium, a coffee shop-cum-curio store, decorated in her own image, which provides a haven for other misfits in the town. There she makes perhaps the first real friends of her life, including Alejandro, a male midwife, escaping his own ghosts in Argentina. But the spectre of Athene and the shop itself combine to set in place a chain of tragic events, forcing Suzanna to confront the feelings she has disguised for so long - and her family, in their varying ways, finally to deal with the events of the past. And Suzanna discovers the key to her history, and her happiness, may have been in front of her all along.

Julie Twist

I found this book slightly confusing as it jumps between different times. The story is mainly about Suzanna Peacock who seems to be at odds with the world in general. Her marriage is not what it should be, and her husband Neil is pressing for them to have a baby which Suzanna is not convinced about. They've had financial problems and have returned to where Suzanna grew up - which she is not entirely happy about - and they live close to her father, step mother and half siblings. The story of her mother hangs over her, although she discovers that the story she has been told is not entirely true. I quite enjoyed this book in the end, but it's not one of JoJo Moyes' best.

The Peacock Emporium

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