How little you know how you’ve kept my balance.
It’s what’s not said that makes this book so extraordinary. The emotions never articulated, the feelings, deeply felt, but never expressed. So many missed opportunities to connect. I found this novel profoundly sad, and a little too close to home - I saw my parent’s marriage poignantly reflected in The Sweet Shop Owner. For a first novel, written by a man barely into his thirties, it is a testament to Swift’s emotional maturity.
If the word love is never spoken, does it mean there isn’t any love?

‘But life is unfair, you do or you don’t have your moment, and if the show must come to an end then there’s always the sound theatrical argument: save the best till last.’

This novella is set in Brighton, in 1959, in a theatre at the end of the pier. There are three players, Ronnie, Evie and Jack who’s lives will change over this final summer season.
There is an overwhelming sense of melancholy; of a small theatrical world that is soon to disappear completely, unable to compete with newer and shinier entertainments. There is a love story, that’s complicated, like all true love tends to be, with a bittersweet outcome.
If you are at all interested in the world of theatre, this lovely little book will appeal to you. Swift’s prose is languid and almost poetic. He uses repetition to create a dream-like quality that I found quite lovely.
This is not a book for readers looking for ‘something to happen’. It’s for readers who want to find themselves in Brighton, in 1959, in the fading world of illusion and magic.