Toby Lloyd’s slow burn of a debut novel is in the tradition of the pentagonal family saga, a subgenre that might include Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks and Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections. Add to this formula the elements of religious mysticism, ethnicity (in this case Jewishness), and an exploration of the ethics around using family as material for literature, and you should have a truly combustible mix.
The five members of the Rosenthal clan are as different and conflicted as Franzen’s Lamberts. Mother Hannah is a high-powered journalist who writes about “religious obligations” and “gender roles” for the rightwing press, while father Eric is a gentle, religiously observant barrister. Eldest son Gideon is gay and leaves to do military service in Israel, while the youngest boy, Tovyah, begins his first term at Oxford having always been “coddled ... shy, knowledgeable, defensive when provoked”.
