Offcomer

Reissue of a Very Ordinary Debut Novel "Jo Baker, bestselling author of Longbourn," it says on the cover. The success of her novel imagining the below-stairs life at the home of Jane Austen's Bennett family has encouraged the publishers to bring out a US edition of her debut novel from 2002. But this......more

In Offcomer, Claire Thomas is a young woman from the North of England who, following her graduation from Oxford, has moved with her boyfriend Alan to Belfast, where he has found employment as an academic at a university. The time is the late 1990s, and a fragile truce prevails between opposing facti......more

I listened to this book while I was doing other things - so I lost my place numerous times. I also wasn't drawn into the story, which was a problem too. I did gather that it was about a young woman who suffers from low self esteem. She "cuts" herself to mask the pain she feels. Her boyfriend treats h......more

I’m never sure how to rate a book that’s well-written and perceptive and real, but that I didn’t particularly enjoy. I was impatient with the main character, and found this book put-down-able for that reason, but I’d happily read something else by this author.......more

2.5 stars rounded up...just not a huge fan. I had high hopes because it is mostly set in Belfast but mostly it was just a bit of a slog.......more