Take a pinch of Margo Lanagan and a dash of Jaclyn Moriarty to form an idea of what this debut author has to offer. Her generational saga, spanning 1904 to 1960, gives a sense of time and place but makes excellent use of magical realism.

Members of the unfortunate Roux family, who depart France for America in 1912 seeking a better life, are transformed by heartbreak in fanciful or ghastly ways. Although the book title suggests that Ava Lavender is the main character, we invest equally in her grandmother, Emilienne, and her mother, Viviane, whose stories are about rejection and prejudice as well as how we react to pain of body and soul. Emilienne loses her family one by one and eventually the ability to show love. Loss also transforms Viviane, which in turn leaves her daughter leading a freakish life. However, none of this heartbreak prepares the reader for what later happens to Ava. By that point we’re so invested in the character, and her family, that it’s not a strange or beautiful sorrow but a solid despair that takes us towards the final pages. It’s a tricky book to bring to a conclusion, but ultimately there’s hope and a young girl’s strength, which befits the genre.

Highly recommended.

Emily Gale is a Children’s & YA Specialist at Readings Carlton, and a Children’s & YA writer the rest of the time.