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When the phone rings in the middle of the night, Helen thinks it must be bad news again. Nearly 27 years ago her oil rig worker husband died at sea on 14 February 1982 (Valentine's Day), leaving her with three children and a fourth on the way. This time, no one has died – her son John is travelling round the world but a woman he had a brief fling with is pregnant with his baby. He was phoning from Singapore. What should he do?
''February '' is Canadian novelist Lisa Moore's second novel (she has also published two collections of short stories) and was longlisted for the Booker Prize. It is a thoughtful, contemplative book about coming to terms with the past and a different future from the one the characters envisaged. The narrative shifts between Helen and John, and also Jane, the pregnant woman. This is not a tightly plotted story – it is a narrative of thoughts, and while the characters have family and friends to interact with, they spend a lot of their time here alone with their thoughts. It's difficult to explain how all this reflection can make for such a compelling novel
Helen remembers meeting John, marrying, getting pregnant, and the night he died in a storm. The oil company didn't even tell the families of the drowned men directly, but suggested they listen to the news on the radio.
