The island of Corfu provides the background to this complicated, and, at times, unbelievable, story about an extended family and their love / hate relationship with the family home on the island, Merchants.

Dulcie is the family matriarch, Piers is a distant husband, Billy is a son who disappears in 1923 following a short lived Italian invasion of the island and Thirza is the daughter, and the person who holds the story together.

The first part of the story is about the disappearance and the subsequent grief, rage and blame which tears the family apart in 1923. The rest of the book is about Thirza’s attempts to make a life back there and what happens.

A series of increasingly improbable events bring the story to a crisis. Along the way Thirza falls in and out love with the same person three times, Dulcie appears to have several nervous breakdowns, Piers has a new girlfriend and everybody sobs. And, that is only the part of it!

Fans of Dinah Jefferies will enjoy the travelogue aspect and she clearly has a love of Corfu and a considerable knowledge of the island. Fans of her previous books will probably go along with the crazy twists and turns in this one – and it does have a happy ending!

For me, the ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ which was required was a bit too much!