The Other Half of Me

In McCarthy’s evocative debut, the upper-class childhoods of seven-year-old Jonathan Anthony and his younger sister, Theo, are the stuff of a modern fairy tale. Growing up mostly unsupervised on a rambling Welsh manor called Evendon, the siblings, despite their differences (Jonathan is a good student, while Theo struggles to wrest her attention away from dreamy preoccupations), are inseparable, whether carousing in the secret garden, stealing canapés, or hiding beneath tables at fancy parties hosted by their grandmother, Eve, and graced by their drunken, detached mother. The garden, with its deep, dark pool, is emblematic for the children of Evendon’s innumerable mysteries, as well as their aristocratic family’s many secrets. The most affecting and curious for Jonathan and Theo is what really happened to their father; Eve told them he died years ago, but Theo believes otherwise, and this doubt threatens to drive her to insanity. Culminating in a tear-jerking conclusion, McCarthy deftly conjures the ghosts of the Anthony family’s past to wreak havoc on—and enrich—its tragic present. Agent: Jo Unwin, Conville & Walsh. (Sept.)