American readers will be thrilled with the recent Europa Edition release of Jane Gardam’s God on the Rocks, originally published in 1978 in England. (Her other US releases include Old Filth and The Man in the Wooden Hat.) In a no-nonsense style, Gardam brings us a clever and taut coming-of-age story with a cast of odd and quirky characters.

The story opens in 1936 on the coast of northern England, where we meet Margaret Marsh, a precocious 8-year-old with a keen eye for the eccentricities of those around her. Over the course of the novel, Gardam reveals both the history and present-day of Margaret’s family – her bank manager father who doubles as a weekend preacher and member of a group known as the Primal Saints, her unnervingly kind mother whose past is revealed during an afternoon tea party with old childhood friends, and Lydia who is the highly sensual house maid.

In the course of the novel, Margaret’s family undergoes a total transformation the truth of which is revealed layer by layer in seamless storytelling. Gardam is a master at dialogue, which is evident from the beginning when Margaret announces to her mother that the world “would be better without people. If I’d been God I’d have left it at dinosaurs.” Startled by her daughter’s blasphemy, Mrs. March remarks, “Margaret, I don’t think you ought to talk about dinosaurs. You know what your Father thinks.”
This is a gem of a story, and a great addition to the collection of Gardam’s works now available on this side of the Atlantic. ~Wendee