The heroine of No Such Thing as Monday by Siân Hughes expertly removes laundry stains at the dry cleaners where she works, but it is the memories of her blemished past she can't erase. A poignant, darkly satirical story, Hughes's second novel is set in the heart of contemporary, working-class England and is centered on her narrator's search for the sister who ran away from home in her teens.
Steffie Cartwright grew up near Birmingham, her childhood dominated by a violent bully of a father, Stan. Her mother and older sister, Caroline, bore the brunt of Stan's cruelty while Steffie, his favorite, swallowed her confusion and learned not to peer too closely at the menacing "undercurrent" of family dysfunction.
Steffie is a chain-smoking, prickly, middle-aged woman when the novel opens. She's a master of deadpan humor, her narration spiked with liberal swearing. Stan has just died and this sets off in his daughter a much-delayed reckoning with shame and guilt over not helping Caroline when they were children. It's only by seeking forgiveness from Caroline that Steffie can dismantle her father's horrible legacy. To this end, Steffie steals a posh coat and sets off north in search of a sister who may not want to be found.
Hughes, a poet and Booker Prize-longlisted novelist (Pearl), offers a tender portrayal of Steffie's complexities, both the aching vulnerability of a child who doesn't know "which way was up" and her tough exterior as an adult. No Such Thing as Monday celebrates its heroine's complicated road to redemption even as she accepts that some memories, like old stains, don't ever disappear. --Shahina Piyarali