Needlemouse

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Needlemouse is the literal Japanese translation for hedgehog. And the protagonist in this story, Sylvia, is very much like that, a prickly and at times dangerously sharp woman, who is just as likely to fold herself into a protective mouse-like ball when her vulnerability is exposed and life becomes too much to handle.

Sylvia's complex obsession with her boss Carl (“the Prof”) is initially endearing before it becomes alarming and ultimately embarrassing. She will do anything to protect him from unpleasant interruptions or unwanted attention and is thus the perfect personal assistant - until the arrival of Lola, a voluptuous and ambitious Ph D student with an agenda. This sets in train a chain of events that will expose Sylvia's secrets and cause her whole life to unravel, including her relationships with her sister Millie, brother-in-law Kamal and niece Crystal.

Through it all, it is her voluntary work at a local hedgehog sanctuary and the companionship of its elderly owner Jonas that sustains her. The linking passages on hedgehog behaviour are interesting in their own right.

Sylvia is not that likeable a character in the first half of the book and her epiphany in the second is just a tad too rosy to be believable. Hedgehogs don’t shed their prickles that easily. The secondary characters are for the most part nicely drawn, with perhaps Jonas being the best.

There are echoes of grim humour and reflections on solitude in middle age that in normal circumstances might be appreciated or even treated lightly by the reader but at the time of writing this review may take on deeper or more poignant meaning as they are inadvertently prescient of what many lonely single women are currently going through, so perhaps not recommended for everyone while in COVID lockdown.

Four stars


Booktopia

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

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