The Still Point

Sackville drifts seamlessly between past and present in her beautifully written debut, the split story of the last days of fictional 19th-century Arctic explorer Edward Mackley, and a day in the life of his great-great-niece, Julia, and her husband, Simon, a hundred years later. Julia and Simon live in Edward's brother's house, surrounded by artifacts of Edward's life's work. Julia spends her days archiving Edward's collection, reading his diaries, and developing deep attachments to the characters involved in her ancestor's story—particularly his young wife, Emily, whom Julia fashions into a Persephone figure, brave and patient as she awaits Edward's return. While the two couples live vastly different lives, there are glimpses—often funny, sometimes painful—of Julia and Simon's strained marriage tucked into the flowery prose of Emily and Edward's romance, revealing them all to be idealists with the unfortunate luck to grind against reality, none with more force than Edward, whose ship never returns. Sackville is a canny observer and a dry wit who can tease a trace of significance out of even the most mundane corners of domesticity. (Jan.)