The Exiles

Tremendously appealing book about four sisters spending the summer with their grandmother with nothing to read. Please ignore the hideously dated cover.

Library copy

The four Conroy sisters, aged between six and thirteen, are an absolute delight. Hilarious, believable and relatably bookish. Ruth, Naomi, Rachel and Phoebe are sent to stay with their grandmother for the summer, in a small rural village by the sea. Most of their ensuing mischief and adventures

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arise as a consequence of them running out of books to read.

McKay’s portrayal of four sisters, each with their own strengths and opinions, has a compelling veracity, and, oh, how they made me laugh! The only downside to the audiobook is that I didn’t bookmark my favourite quotes. I need a copy for my bookshelf!
Naomi Conroy crouched uncomfortably at the end of the garden reading a book. As usual, she had spent her Saturday morning at the town library, searching the too-familiar shelves for something new. On her left was the stack of books she had read since she returned, and on her right the pile she hadn’t opened yet. She kept her elbow leaning on that pile to guard them from her permanently book-hungry sisters. Even now, she could feel herself being watched, and without looking up knew that Ruth was hovering close by, waiting for her to finish. By law of the family, the book would become then common property, free for anyone to read. This is set during the 60s or 70s, and if I had read it when I was child, I wouldn’t have characterised it as “historical” at all (in part because I would have likely assumed that any differences between the girls’ world and mine was simply due to people doing things differently in England). But, as McKay acknowledges in her author’s note, she wrote this looking back at the past, and reading it now, it certainly “feels” like historical fiction. Which made me realise that there may well come a day when I read a book set during my own childhood and think Ahh, yes, historical fiction.

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