The Forrests captures the essence of the physical world through the sensory vision of Dorothy, the eldest daughter in the Forrests family, and is a novel about kinship, family, and change. It is a well written, and highly descriptive novel that appreciates the flashing split-second nature of life – Dorothy is keen on living, and appreciates the flickering moment of existence.

The novel takes the readers through the family’s journey, as they move from busy New York City to New Zealand, an island of rare bird species where the family try to forge a new life, the course of which is studded with emotion and dramatic decisions. The Forrests are an ordinary family; but they too are affected by tragedy and misfortune.

This is an unconventional novel with a fractured style that, when reading, feels like looking into a stranger’s photo album and gathers a collective momentum and familiarity over time. It sings with colour and memory, and speaks of time, dysfunction, ageing and loneliness. It concerns itself with how life can change if ‘you’re lucky enough to be around for it’.

By the end of the novel Perkins develops how a person’s outlook on life changes as time passes, and how one’s feelings for family undergo a process of transition as the journey of self-discovery is embarked upon. From suppressed passion to long-lasting love, we find comfort as readers in the sharing of these emotions. It is about the cycle of life; the development of children into parents, and how the cycle continues, and never stops.

 

The Forrests is available now from Bloomsbury Circus

Words: Hanni Chabin