The depth of thought and care in this book in terms of how the author muses on the impact of the stories he's telling, both on himself (bookending the parents' stories) and on his parents, is - startlingly luminous. The first chapter's writing is just a little twee but a good twee - the storyteller weight to it rather than some ironic twisty bit.

So ultimately this book felt a bit personal: He reflects a lot on the impact of his mother's (hidden) life as a nun, and the lie she told in order to marry his father (changed her age and took on her sister's legal identity; thus she had to keep away from her family). There's also some neat bits around the end of the British Empire.

It did drag a bit around his father's story; it felt like he was trying to give it equal weight, to be fair, when really it was less of a story.

This was a random library select and really fortuitous.