If you dig hard enough there are at least three great stories in any family. When Daniel attends an extraordinary family reunion with his parents, he discovers a world he hardly knew existed. Seduced by the glamour of this new world, Daniel adopts the role of go-between for his glamorous Aunt Alice and his cousins Rebecca and Charles. But even the most honourable of intentions have the potential to go disasterously wrong.
A vivid and captivating tale in which Daniel meets his wider family – people whom his father had detached himself from many years before. One by one Daniel listens to each person's story, becoming obsessively drawn into every new experience whilst slowly building a picture of the family's past. It is a picture full of amazing and very beautiful stories but also of pain and guilt. Eventually Daniel discovers himself in that picture too, as a young child in fancy dress at a children's party long ago. As distant memories are stirred for the first time in his life, he becomes even more compelled to uncover his own part in the story. The complex interweaving of each separate story finally brings acceptance, understanding and peace to each member, and reconcilliation to the family as a whole.
Developing themes explored in Poliakoff's earlier work, Shooting the Past, Perfect Strangers captures the magic and wonder surrounding such things as war stories, mysterious photographs, dark secrets and hidden stories from family trees.
No comments:
Post a Comment