A fire in a high-rise residential apartment in West London on the same night left several residents homeless and many dead. The sisters’ relationship hums along between them as quite different people with different approaches to their mother’s dilemma.

But the setting is London which has changed since Ordinary People times: ‘the poverty is louder, fuller.

And, I did wonder at the framing of the book around the Grenfell Tower tragedy…I was unclear really on why it had such a commanding presence at the beginning of the novel but had almost nothing to do with the rest of the book. Diana Evans “Ordinary People” was Women’s Prize shortlisted in 2019 – it was a book where I had mixed feelings, largely due to my lack of identification with main characters who preferred Brixton to Box Hill and considered the death of Michael Jackson an epochal event, and I also struggled with the tell-not-show lengthy description of everyday life. It is rare for me to be so deeply moved by a book, a book that puts feelings into words, feelings which I’ve never been able to clearly express myself. A HOUSE FOR ALICE is an interesting and intimate glimpse into one family’s turmoil on the heels of the sudden loss of a husband and father.

There are references to current affairs too – the Windrush scandal, Harry and Meghan’s wedding, the “doomful cloud of Boris Johnson”.Grenfell was only 5/6 years ago and the government still have not provided the right support and after care to those involved. I also found the short segment on Cornelius’ afterlife experience a tad disjointed with the overall narrative. Told from many viewpoints, the novel reads like interconnected short stories and can be a bit hard to follow at times because of the abundance of characters including the members of the Pitt family as well as Melissa's ex-husband, Michael, and his new wife, Nicole, and friends Damian, Stephanie and their family. And the contrast is I think even more deliberate and bought out in a number of ways: Michael (a key protagonist in both stories and now a committed social justice campaigner) takes time to reflect on the failed promises of the Obama-election; earlier, when his second wife – Nicole, a once famous singer – throws a party to celebrate Meghan marrying into the Royal Family (as an aside the author’s debut novel starts with Charles and Di’s wedding), Michael is more focused on the contrast with growing homelessness; and the only newly inaugurated administration in this book is Theresa May’s government and her early mishandling of the Grenfell Tower crisis as well as the implicit (if not explicit) message that Britain is no longer welcoming to those born elsewhere.

Her writing is beautiful and because she's so precise she earns the right to daydream for the men, women, children we live alongside as we read, taking us far beyond the day to day, before she delivers them back to London, or the airport, or Paris, the church, to Benin, the therapist or gentrified Peckham, to the cost of housing or the music reverberating through the many rooms of a club night in Croydon. Their push-and-pull dynamic over the years reflects the struggles faced by many in a society that perpetuates inequality. It gives a very in-depth look at families, love and what ties us together, without really having a main character, it allows you a peek into all members of the family, their relationships and dynamics. As the investigation into the tragedy unfolds, it becomes clear that the struggle for justice and equality for people of color is ongoing. I thought about times that this book almost read like linked short stories and, whilst some were stronger than others, I really enjoyed the deep dive into the characters lives told through pivotal moments.From there in the first part we circle around the lives of Melissa (and her tendency to date slightly abusive men), Michael and Nicole (whose marriage seems to be floundering on incompatability, but one so strong that I was less clear on why they really ended up together in the first place), Alice (and the small church of which she is part) – and some of their wider family. In some cases I wish certain moments had been even deeper examined or explored to fully highlight their impact. I want to point out that A House For Alice is a follow-up to the authors other book, Ordinary People.

The book opens with the historic 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London that destroyed more than 100 homes and took the lives of 72 people. It serves as a reminder that despite progress, there is still much work to be done in dismantling systemic inequalities. The characters in this novel are richly developed, with Melissa and Michael's complex relationship standing out.

Evans is a former dancer, and her journalism, criticism and essays appear in among others Time Magazine, Vogue, Financial Times, The Guardian, The Observer, The New York Review of Books and Harper’s Bazaar. The book opens, alongside the Grenfell Tower fire, with another fatal fire on the same evening – Cornelius, living on his own and increasingly suffering from dementia, falls asleep and his lit cigarette causes his death. Her prose is gorgeous and dreamlike, and her characters are fleshed out and real, even the ones whose stories are relatively peripheral. With her grown children torn about whether they should allow her to go, they feel threatened as the family dynamic might crumble to pieces.