This is far and away one of my favourite books. Shields toes a delicate line I’d never imagined before between autobiography and fiction, tracing the life of a girl (eventually a woman, of course) named Daisy, and uses her hopes and stumbles and desperate quiet struggles to show us the power of the unfulfilled life and the silent allowances we make for our inadequacies.

A little bit patriarchal, admittedly, but if you are a young man trying to find your way, you may find much of yourself reflected in young Kim’s hopes, dreams and aspirations.

It’s a book of stories about a people and about a city. Just read ‘The Dead.’ You’ll understand.