Human Croquet Av Kate Atkinson

<p><b>The brilliant and profound second novel from the three-times Costa prizewinner and number one bestseller Kate Atkinson.</b><br><br><b>''Vivid, richly imaginative, hilarious and frightening by turns'' <i>Observer</i></b><br><br>Once it had been the great forest of Lythe. And here, in the beginning, lived the Fairfaxes, grandly, at Fairfax Manor.<br><br>But over the centuries the forest had been destroyed, replaced by Streets of Trees. The Fairfaxes have dwindled too; now they live in ''Arden'' at the end of Hawthorne Close and are hardly a family at all.<br><br>But Isobel Fairfax, who drops into pockets of time and out again, knows about the past. She is sixteen and waiting for the return of her mother - the thin, dangerous Eliza with her scent of nicotine, Arpège and sex, whose disappearance is part of the mystery that still remains at the heart of the forest.</p>