Comet Weather, by Liz Williams
This was the best book by Liz I’ve read yet, possibly because I suspect vast chunks of it are autobiographical, even though I know Liz is an only child while this is about four sisters who live in, or at least come from, Glastonbury. Their rather whacky hippy mother disappeared a few years ago, which still hurts but they are trying to get on with their lives, all in quite realistic and plausible ways. They cover a range of personality types from the steady, reliable one to the flighty traveller wannabe, and think nothing of the fact that the spirits of stars occasionally come wandering through the family home, or that the boyfriend of one of them is the ghost of an Elizabethan sailor, or that if any of them ever wonders what their late grandfather would do, they just have to pop down to the graveyard and ask him. Meanwhile, strange – or even stranger – forces are gathering … What really makes it work is the humour, the sheer love for Somerset and the casual reality of the pagan world that shines through every page.