Madame Burova is closing up her booth on the Brighton seafront and retiring after over 50 years as a Tarot Reader, Palmist and Clairvoyant. She is the keeper of secrets. Anything that she has been told in confidence during a reader remains with her alone. It is like the sanctity of Catholic Confession.
Billie has come to a crossroads in her life. When her Dad became ill she took voluntary redundancy from her job as a university lecturer and moved back home to look after him. Her marriage was over at this point so she and her husband sold their property and split the proceeds and went their separate ways. As the book opens Billie is preparing to handover her childhood home to its new buyer, sold after the death of her father.
As she sorts through all the junk mail she finds a brown envelope that had been forwarded on by her father’s solicitors. It contains a letter from her father revealing some shocking information that will change Billie’s life forever.
The story is told via a dual timeline with some chapters set in 1972 and others in the present time. The combination of these two parallel stories is a beautiful heartwarming story filled with lively characters and a rich beautifully described 1970s England – complete with racists, sexists and openly misogynistic employers. It is a gorgeous story that I devoured in just a day as I really wanted to find out what had happened to Imelda Burova and her colleagues at the holiday camp.
Supplied by Net Galley and John Murray Press, Two Roads in exchange for an honest review.
UK Publication Date: Apr 01 2021. 301 pages
Categories: 4 Stars Book Review
angelnet69
Prolific reader, enthusiastic theatre and movie-goer and ex-Olivier Awards judge who spent twenty years working in the music industry in London. Sharing my house with a gorgeous cockapoo called Harry who has taken over completely.
I love sharing my favourite books with friends - nearly always spoiler-free as I hate reading a synopsis of the whole book in other reviews.
#BookAdvocatesUnite
angelnetreviews.com 
Leave a Reply