Oystercatchers

Oystercatchers revolves around a 27-year-old woman named Moira Stone. Four days a week, she goes to visit her sister, Amy, lying in a coma for four years as the novel begins. While only 11 when Amy was born, Moira distanced herself from her family when her sister was born. She went away to boarding school instead of remaining home, keeping her interactions with her parents and younger sister to a minimum. She met a man, Ray, while a teenager and married him once she finishes school. Now that Amy lies comatose, Moira tells her story of pain and regret to her sister, both as confession and as a vehicle to understand her decisions in her own life. Susan Fletcher's novel has received mixed reviews with The Guardian saying, "The novel is both emotionally discomfiting and romantic; at times puzzling, it is profound, beautiful and redemptive. Oystercatchers is the work of a seriously talented young author in possession of one of the most poetic and original voices working now."