Hands down the best book I've read this year. Saunders's writing is beautifully lyrical -- filled with movement and life, but also intense sorrow and memory -- and provides a wonderful backdrop for this family history.

The book follows a family of five, from marriage to death, and how parenting affects the people that children and parents alike become. Eve and Al have three children (Leon, Rene and Jayne) and their two eldest children start dancing from an early age. Whilst Al adores Rene for her talent, he is cold and distant towards his son, never properly connecting with him. Eve makes up for this by favouring Leon and neglecting Rene. These complex family dynamics, and the effect which this has on the two children, is explored intricately and sensitively.

I particularly liked how Saunders played with empathy. Typically, there is one protagonist -- maybe a few if you're playing with timeframes -- but Saunders switches between Rene and Leon, turning them into antagonists and heroins so rapidly that you can't quite tell whether you're supposed to like them or not. Interestingly though, whilst we always hear from Rene directly and can access her interior thoughts, we cannot for Leon (he remains distant). We only ever understand Leon through Eve, which of course makes all knowledge of him rather unreliable... In short, I loved the complexity of characterisation.

Plus -- best last chapter of a book I think I have ever read. Everything literature should be.