Maggie Smith

Berney is one of my favorite writers and he never fails to do something interesting with his stories. This novel is short enough to read in one sitting and it kept me spellbound throughout, desperate to know whether Hardly saves the mother and children and comes out in one piece. It was a fascinating character study of a 23-year-old man/child who finds a purpose in life – as he says several times, the moment in his life which is the POINT of his life as he tries to rescue two abused children he encounters by chance, aided by a motley but ultimately fascinating set of secondary characters, not a trope among them. If you liked Larry Watson’s slim book “Let Him Go” – this has many of the same vibes.