Charlotte Edwardes's "Trouble Was" Offers Sharp Child's-Eye View

Charlotte Edwardes's debut novel, "Trouble Was," was published this week, offering a child's perspective on adult neglect. The story is set during the long, hot summer of 1976, a period that resonates with many novelists for its potential to create fictional tension. The novel centers on three young children who stay with their aunt in the West Country, amidst a backdrop of a heatwave, escalating water shortages, and the mother's deteriorating mental health and marital crisis.

Edwardes employs a first-person narrator, Frank, a primary-aged boy. While child narrators can often strain credibility, Edwardes's portrayal is described as convincing and compelling from the start. The use of past tense allows for immediate observations while also conveying a sense of adult reflection. The narrative cleverly uses the gap between Frank's understanding and the reader's comprehension to reveal the complexities of the adults' lives, including their infidelities, the hereditary and situational nature of the mother's mental illness, and her attempts to evade social services.

The novel's pace is characterized as slow, mirroring the experience of school holidays with limited activities, yet the narrative is driven by underlying tension from the outset. The setting of the 1976 heatwave serves as a powerful catalyst, amplifying the pressures on daily life and the characters' circumstances. The book has been praised for its sharp insights into the adult world as seen through the innocent yet observant eyes of a child.