A Sweet Obscurity by Patrick Gale

• Chicago Public Library ,USA

Dido, the nine-year-old heroine and emotional centre of A Sweet Obscurity, knows that the adults who surround her, the adults who should know better, depend on her for happiness. So who is she to turn to when her short life turns upside down and tragic family history threatens to repeat itself.

Eliza, the clever, depressive aunt who has brought Dido up, and whose brilliant academic career has foundered due to the demands of unlooked-for motherhood, tries and fails to give Dido the happy normal childhood she never had herself. Her ex-husband Giles needs Dido back in his life, feeling it has lost all meaning, all substance, without her. His girlfriend, Julia, has been content to be the ideal stepmother but suddenly has needs of her own, and resons fro keeping the pair of them apart. Then there is the unexpected new love interest in Eliza'a messy life, a man desperate to give Eliza and Dido the security and protection they need. But will Eliza let him? Does she love him or is she using him to restart a stalled career?

Only Dido, unheard of in the clamour of others' needs, has the power to make or break the happiness of these children in adult clothing.

Patrick Gale was born in 1962, on the Isle of Wight, England. He spent his infancy at Wandsworth Prison, which his father governed, then grew up in Winchester. He now lives on a farm near Land's End, Cornwall. As well as writing and reviewing fiction, he has contributed to various anthologies; written for television; published a biography of Armistead Maupin; written a short history of the Dorchester Hotel and chapters on Mozart's piano and mechanical music for H C Robbins Landon's The Mozart Compendium. His most recent novels are Rough Music and Tree Surgery for Beginners.