This is the story of a marriage, an affair, and what happens after both come tumbling down around the protagonist, Alice, a young American arriving in Ireland in the 1980s. Molly McCloskey writes beautifully, but the story is rather unremarkable. There’s a moment when Alice, having unburdened herself of something “big and confusing” to an acquaintance, muses on his silence. Is he at a loss, “unable to cross easily from the territory of information to the territory of feeling”? It feels a little like McCloskey is similarly struggling, because, for all our access to her, Alice’s quiet aloofness renders her strangely inscrutable. As when the colours of a landscape aren’t quite rich or deep enough, When Light Is Like Water paints a detailed but hazy image.
• When Light Is Like Water by Molly McCloskey is published by Penguin (£16.99). To order a copy for £14.44 go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99
