I don't have kids and this book made me realise that it's probably a good thing that I don't. That's not to say I have anything against little people but I don't think I could have handled the 'mean girls' at the school gates. This is a very modern tale of ghosting and gaslighting amongst the mumocracy. It's horrible to see that bullying and ganging up doesn't stop when the girls leave school. Anu and Ravi have moved from India to a village not too far from London and Anu struggles to fit in. She observes - and it struck me quite deeply - that somebody moving to England from India today has very little in common with those who moved here back in the 50s, 60s, or even later. The India that she and Ravi left behind is a completely different country from the one left behind by earlier waves of immigration. She doesn't fit in with the historic immigrant community and the mums at the school are a mercurial bunch, changing their favour and fashion frequently. At first, she has no friends, then a group pick her up and include her, only to drop her again without explanation. I didn't have problems fitting in at school - and I probably wasn't the type of kid to care too much - but as a mum, Anu really suffers for being pushed aside and left out. Ravi has his work colleagues and doesn't really 'get' why she's so upset. She also has a problem that her mother was a pretty dreadful woman who gave her no attention and very little love. It's not really as if she has any kind of role model. I really enjoyed this book even though very little actually happened. I sympathised deeply with Anu and her loneliness and was happy when she found another way by which to define her worth. I don't know how much of this was autobiographical, but if Poornima Manco suffered this kind of unkindness, I hope she's found her worth and no longer needs to define herself by the opinion of others. And if I were a mum and she were her character, she'd be welcome round at my house for coffee and a chat any time. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for access to this lovely book.