An original novel about two young cousins, growing up in Swansea in the 1950s, sharing an intense friendship which turns sour and leads to tragedy.

Nofel wreiddiol am ddwy gyfnither ifanc, sydd hefyd yn ffrindiau pennaf, yn tyfu i fyny yn Abertawe'r 1950au, ond mae'r berthynas yn troi'n chwerw gan arwain at drasiedi.

The title of Dr Stevie Davies's novel, Kith and Kin, is reminiscent of a little-watched Australian comedy Kath and Kim. Like this novel, included on the Academi's Wales Book of the Year 2005 long list, the antipodean show also observes family relationships in minute detail, centres on the close ties between women, and often relies on darkness for its humour.

Stevie Davies is Director of Creative Writing at Swansea University and a novelist of note. Previously selected for inclusion in both the Orange Prize and the Mann Booker, she has also won the Arts Council of Wales Award. In Kith and Kin instead of south Australia she offers us South Wales. Instead of a squabbling mother and daughter, we have Frankie and Mara, cousins and closer-than-sister friends who are known to plait their hair together as tightly as the extended family relationships around them are knotted together by petty jealousies and gossip. This isn't the laugh-a-minute of a sit com – the humour here is far more painful – but there is the lightness of touch that Stevie Davies is known for which makes this very easy to read.

And there's plenty of squabbling in Kith and Kin to keep me reading. Here it's over the ashes of poor Frankie, neglected and unloved, who killed herself in her garage aged 23. The garage may have been demolished, but what happened there can't so easily be removed. Why she kills herself and the resulting family antagonisms fill this novel, carrying us back and forth through the decades in this often dark but intelligent and compelling read.

Michael Nobbs

It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgement should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.

Gellir defnyddio’r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatad Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.