Sarah-Kate Lynch: By Bread Alone

Reviewed by MARGIE THOMSON

The glorious scent of baking bread wafts persistently through this novel (as the pungent stink of cheese did through Lynch's previous novel Blessed Are) and I was relieved to note that she has included a recipe for sourdough bread at the end, although rather dismayed to realise the commitment this loaf requires.

Lynch is a distinctive voice at the quality end of the popular-fiction genre. Her plots buzz along (both her previous novels have been optioned by film companies), her characters spring recognisably to life, she's extremely lively and funny (albeit a little glib and overstated at times) especially when she's skewering the world of social flim-flam, but with a feel for language that results in some lovely imagery and, in this latest novel, genuine poignancy.

Esme and Pog and their 4-year-old son Rory have fled London for the Sussex countryside, where they live in the six-storey House in the Clouds. It seems idyllic - he's an architect, she bakes bread - yet their lives are haunted by unaddressed past horror.

Sadness lurks in the shadows, but is elbowing its way out into the open. Esme grieves for the younger woman she was, and dreams of a past romance that unexpectedly threatens to spring to life again.

Meanwhile, Esme's friends - gay Charlie, who advises her, "You should just scrape the bottom of the barrel like the rest of us", and Alice, a perennial blind-dater - have their own ideas about how Esme should handle her incipient crisis.

Lynch handles her plot with aplomb, keeping the tension building rather than dissolving once the secrets emerge. There's a bit much description for my liking, rather than letting feelings and physical details unfold in their own time. But, gosh, I skipped easily through the pages and arrived at the end with a lump in my throat. Will Esme commit grimy infidelity? Will poor, loyal Pog's heart be broken? And what will become of the sourdough starter?

Clever, moreish, light yet strangely satisfying.

Black Swan, $26.95