A novel, set in Oystermouth, which asks profound questions about the modern world, and is alive with humour and pathos. Includes a host of interesting characters such as Red Dora, an ex-communist in her nineties and veteran of the Spanish Civil War; Eirlys a middle-aged Welsh patriot; and Hannah, a young woman in flight from the tedium of middle-class life.

Nofel wedi ei lleoli yn Ystumllwynarth sy'n gofyn cwestiynau dwys am y byd modern; mae'n gyforiog o hiwmor a phathos. Ceir llu o gymeriadau lliwgar, megis Red Dora, cyn-gomiwnydd yn ei nawdegau a fu'n cymryd rhan yn Rhyfel Cartref Sbaen; Eirlys, cenedlaetholwraig Gymreig; a Hannah, gwraig ifanc sy'n ffoi rhag diflastod bywyd dosbarth canol.

The Eyrie tells the story of three very different women and their growing friendship: Dora, still fiercely political and extraordinarily physically and mentally robust in her 90s; middle-aged Eirlys, whose life revolves around caring for her family and friends; and the young Hannah, who is looking both for her roots and for a new and more meaningful way to live. As trust and love strengthen among them, so each woman begins to see herself and the world differently and feels able to share her secrets and make the changes she wants in her life.

At first, rather distracted by the abundance of secondary characters, I soon realised how essential they were to this portrayal of these three women forming a community within a community, with the web of relationships that necessarily spreads out from each of them. Far from contributing in a merely peripheral way, many of these secondary characters are deeply developed and memorable in their own right. Davies has a keen ear and sharp eye for the voices and mannerisms of each age group, especially the young: show me a parent of a child aged 10 years or older who will not smile with wry recognition as ‘Aeronwy waggled her head in a completely berserk manner, intimating that her parents were inane beyond all telling. [...] her parents were mingers’. And she offers a moving portrayal of the paradoxically simultaneous power and powerlessness of the elderly.

Davies is particularly strong in depicting the complexities and nuances of family and intergenerational relationships, and the power shifts that occur within them as people's perceptions of themselves and their roles change over time. Seemingly without judgment, she faithfully traces the complicated patterns and constantly shifting sands of neediness and guilt, remorse and self-justification, the painful contradiction of needing both to belong and to be apart.

Suzy Ceulan Hughes

It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment 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 ganiatâd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.