A Solitary Walk on the Moon is one of those rare and lovely books that instantly transports you into its pages, where what seems a deceptively simple premise for a story unfurls into a rich and complex tapestry filled with life and emotion.

Evelyn owns a full-service laundromat on a peaceful suburban main street. She prides herself on providing excellent service to her customers and keeping to herself the many thoughts and opinions she has about all of them. Evelyn is not only keenly observant of those around her; she has a truly spectacular imagination. It is, no doubt, a key factor in the development of her friendship with young Ben, a regular customer at the laundromat with his mum June. As her care and concern for Ben and June deepens, Evelyn steps out of the comfort zone of her solitary life to engineer a network of benevolent adults, a village if you will.

Hilde Hinton’s critically acclaimed debut novel The Loudness of Unsaid Things not only made several bestseller lists in 2020, it was also everywhere and talked about by everyone. That’s a tough act to follow, but Hinton has smashed it out of the park. Reading A Solitary Walk on the Moon has been one of my most joyful experiences this year. I immediately fell in love with this quirky, rag-tag group of characters, who felt so real to me, I physically miss them. In fact, I am still thinking about them. They say it takes a village to raise a child. And it really does. But, I would suggest, it also takes a very astute villager to know which child needs the most help and why. Evelyn is that villager. And, I suspect, so is Hilde Hinton.

Tye Cattanach is a bookseller at Readings Carlton.