A lovely win from NetGalley which was published on 23 January – the second novel by the author of “The Lido” which both Matthew and I loved in 2018, and more of the same careful observation of London communities. Thank you to Orion Publishing for making it available via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Libby Page – “The 24-Hour Cafe”

(NetGalley, 28 November 2019)

In Page’s second novel, we meet Mona and Hannah, each working a double shift at the 24-hour cafe, conveniently getting half the book each, as we work our way from midnight to midnight, with them telling the story of their five-year friendship. So yes, in their lives there are careers, family and love interest, but the main point of the book is their friendship.

We visit singer Hannah’s life first and her realisation now that she sank too much of her life into her boyfriend at the expense of her friendship with Mona, a dancer, when what they have is really special, friends at first sight, even. Mona’s career is seeing some changes and these could threaten things, too. Meanwhile, we also look through the eyes of various characters who are customers of the cafe, some transient, some regulars. This builds on the little vignettes we had in The Lido and cover all sorts of state of the nation type issues, such as the difficulty of motherhood or worries about one’s immigration status after Brexit. The customers interact with the two women and they interact with their colleagues, sometimes growing closer to them.

The solidarity of the staff when there’s a threat is lovely to read; some of the pieces about the customers feel a tiny bit like writing exercises but I am very allergic to that kind of thing (e.g. could not BEAR “If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things”) and lots of people have been absolutely fine with them, so don’t let my curmudgeonly attitude put you off!

The narrative arc, as I say, being the life of a friendship is unusual and satisfying, and the main subplot around one of the customers adds depth and a nice dash of tension. A good read.