World Book Night gifted my wife with a book. 'The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox' sat next to our front door for a couple of nights before I decided to have a look at it. Two women, one at the beginning of the 20th century, the other at the start of the 21st. Both have issues.

I could see where the troubles for the older woman lay. The story tells of the troubled childhood of Esme Lennox, a girl with her own take on life and a need for something more than marriage. Esme witnesses something terrible in her youth that distances her from her intolerant parents, and then falls into the shadow of her sister, Kitty, who represents the family ideal of the perfect young woman.

Iris, an independent woman, with her own business and a troubled affair with a married man, discovers a relative she never knew existed. As an asylum seeks to offload the last patients in its care, Iris meets Esme for the first time and we follow her over the course of weekend. Both women have something to discover for themselves, some sense of their position in the world, some grip of the events that have moulded their existence.

I didn't know what I would make of it, but in the end I found I couldn't put it down. I know you read that sort of blurb on the cover of books all the time, but I'm serious. I consumed this book in the space of a week, or less. I don't normally read at that sort of pace, but whenever I sat near it the book leapt into my hands and I struggled to stop leafing through the pages. I found the writing style light and engaging. At the same time, when it needed to be serious or distracted and disjointed, Maggie O'Farrell does that well, too. I can see why someone might recommend it, why World Book Night chose to include amongst the volumes on offer. I'm aware of how institutions and families treated women at the end of the Victorian period and into the early part of the 20th century. I felt for Esme and her trials, and this could all so easily refer to a true story rather than simply an act of fiction. I'm sure many women suffered the same fate, and that leaves me troubled, touched.

I thoroughly recommend this read and will definitely pass it on for others to enjoy.