''when they aren't required to care.''
This why we so regularly wring our hands and say "lessons must be learned" and "we couldn't have known". This is what the turning of blind eyes lo[[oks looks like when you're Allison or someone like her. I love Crossan for never flinching and giving voice to those from whom we'd prefer not to hear if it punctures our comfortable bubbles.
''Toffee'' covers some painful topics - domestic abuse, dementia, poverty - but it isn't a dour read. That clever, delicate language is turned to a beautiful friendship between a young girl and an old woman and how much it brings to them both. It's turned to Marla's ribald sense of humour and Allison's hopes for the future. It's turned to daft patterns on carpets and dancing with joy. It's full of drama and also full of subtlety. Touching and quite beautiful, ''Toffee'' is a keeper.