Book review: The Tidal Zone

ADAM GOLDSCHMIDT is a stay-at-home dad whose world view changes dramatically when his 15-year-old daughter’s heart stops beating on the school playing field for no apparent reason. 

Sarah Moss

Granta, £12.99;

ebook, £8.54

Thrown into uncertainty, the family struggle through the frustration of waiting for answers and a return to ‘normality’, trying to adjust to the fact Miriam will never be truly safe again.

University professor Sarah Moss has a growing reputation for tackling difficult truths .

She is an astute storyteller, and in The Tidal Zone shares societal observations around her slow-burning plot.

For example, Adam mainly rejoices in his child-raising role, while his wife Emma, a doctor, plays the breadwinner, but the switch in traditional gender roles underlines little resentments such as who has the ‘right’ to stay with Miriam.

Moss taps into experiences you do not need to be a parent to feel and tackles this extremely uncomfortable subject with tact, plausibility and flowing prose.