As She Left It

As She Left It is my most recent read -- and I think the first Catriona McPherson novel I've read. An Anthoiny award winner last year, it's set in modern day northern England -- about which I know next to nothing -- and I found it a fascinating and compulsive read -- a likable, stubborn, driven protagonist, a wealth of colorful and interesting characters, and many, many questions that beg to be answered.  

So much of my reading of novels set in England deals with the first part of the twentieth century and the 'gentry.' This is working/middle class, ethnically diverse, modern day England.  Is this the way it really is?  Maybe Jennyfreckles or Martin will have read this and can enlighten me.  

No matter -- I really enjoyed spending time in this world. 

Here's what the author's website says:

When she was twelve, Opal Jones ran away from home.. Now, thirteen years later, she's back for the first time. Her mother has died but everyone else is still there: nosy Mrs. Pickness, the Joshi family taxi firm, Fishbo he music teacher, and even old Margaret, Opal's favourite neighbor of all. On the surface everything is exactly as she left it. Underneath, nothing is the same.