Everybody Has Everything
Canadians Ana and James are a childless couple entering middle age when an automobile accident makes them the guardians of a toddler named Finn. The mores of twenty-first-century urban life constitute the framework of the story, and the addition of a two-year-old to a long-standing marriage lends tension and suspense to the narrative arc. The pith of the story resides, however, in the characters, both primary and secondary. Onstad slowly reveals, through flashback and happenstance, the flaws and strengths that Ana and James are forced to face as the marriage that seemed quite solid slowly begins to deteriorate. She demonstrates how interaction with the other people in their lives has shaped them and helped create the current marital crisis. The story’s climax and resolution are the opposite of pat, delivering a host of surprises and leaving the future of the characters open to interpretation. This beautiful novel, whose author writes with a mastery of craft and an aversion to the predictable, has broad appeal. --Ellen Loughran