THE PAST by Tessa Hadley

Here we have another novel, like Sarah Blake’s The Guest Book, in which adult siblings convene in their dilapidated family home for three weeks to decide what to do with the house.  However, this book is richer in every way—characters, plot, and the beautifully described setting in the English countryside, where adults routinely lie down in the lush grass.  (Here in Florida we would be assailed by insects and reptiles.)  Parts 1 and 3 take place during this three-week span, bookending a section that takes place a generation earlier, in which the aforementioned siblings are children, or, in one case, not yet born.  In the present day sections, we have four siblings--Harriet and Alice, different as night and day, Roland, and Fran.  Roland has brought his 16-year-old daughter, Molly, and introduces his Argentine third wife, Pilar, to his sisters.  Alice inexplicably has her ex-boyfriend’s 20-year-old son, Kasim, in tow.  Fran’s kids, Arthur and Ivy, have prominent roles as well, but their father has conveniently forgotten about the trip and has booked appearances for his band.  The budding romance between Kasim and Molly is completely predictable but still charming, but 9-year-old Ivy is the impish surprise here, guarding secrets, particularly about an abandoned cottage in the woods, that really should be brought to light.  She is also somewhat of a little con artist where her younger brother is concerned and given to fits of anger-induced vandalism.  For me, Ivy, often dressed in a muddy petticoat, and frumpy Harriet, who bonds with the exotic Pilar, are the most vivid characters.  Harriet may be the oldest who would never forget her keys, as Alice does at the very beginning, but Alice, a failed actress who seems a bit superficial at times, is the one who ultimately has to do the heavy lifting in this story and also has the heaviest burden to bear.