What does a hairbrush carry across a hundred years?
Beginning in a Shropshire village in 1921, Tangled Lives traces a single silver-handled hairbrush through six extraordinary ordinary lives. A widow who takes in sewing. A Jewish seamstress who rebuilds a life after loss. A Portuguese barber and his daughter in 1970s Brixton. A community nurse caring for her dying mother. A young man alone on a Dorset beach, trying to understand who he is. And the artist who turns the brush - and all the stories it holds - into something unforgettable.
Across a century of quiet acts of care - hair brushed, hands held, objects passed gently from one pair of hands to the next - V. G. Lance weaves a novella of rare emotional intelligence. Tangled Lives is a book about the things we inherit that cannot be named, and the thread of connection that runs through all of us, whether we know it or not.
Perfect for readers of Penelope Fitzgerald, Ali Smith, and Maggie O'Farrell.