Snake Road by Sue Peebles

Snake Road is a family drama focusing on the lives of three women across three generations of the Copella family. In the top floor of the family home, grandmother Peggy is living with dementia and being cared for by her daughter, Mary. Granddaughter Aggie, the narrator of the story, is failing to cope with her own personal tragedy and starting to take an increasing interest in the snippets of memories that Peggy recounts. Soon, Aggie is intent on discovering the truth of her grandmother’s life, piecing together the few fragments of information she can glean as her illness rapidly develops.

It is a female-dominated book – the male characters often appear merely as placid bystanders. But the small family cast is fleshed out by the members of a support group for carers; and the novel subtly portrays not only the varying effects that caring for a relative can have, both on the primary carer and the family as a whole, but also the fallout that can occur when a relative is moved to professional care. Despite the book's exploration of illness and loss, Peebles' keen eye for social observation adds a comic touch to the narrative, expertly showing how black humour is used in bleak times. [Rowena McIntosh]