“That first time, she barely saw him at all.” So begins Our London Lives, the sprawling yet intimate new novel from the award-winning Irish writer Christine Dwyer Hickey. She is Milly, a teenage runaway from County Louth recently arrived in London in search of a fresh start. He is Pip, an aspiring young boxer usually found in Mrs Oak’s pub in search of a fresh whiskey. When Milly secures a job in the pub, their paths inevitably cross, forging a tumultuous bond – and a tumultuous novel – that spans more than 40 years.
With the large passage of time and alternating points of view, the book is initially reminiscent of David Nicholls’s One Day or even Sally Rooney’s Normal People. And yet it soon becomes clear that Our London Lives is not a love story – or at least, not in the traditional sense. For one, the central characters only ever enjoy a brief, ill-fated romance (the consummation of which is sadly omitted). For another, while Milly’s chapters begin in 1979, Pip’s commence in 2017. Now a recovering alcoholic who hasn’t spoken to Milly in decades, he is released from prison, charged with finding his way in a city he no longer recognises.
