Germaine Kiecke, an art critic and broadcaster, is the lead character in this well-crafted and thought-provoking novel. Or, is she? Several characters reflect different facets of the story, so reading it feels like walking in a portrait gallery, or flicking through a graphic novel. Because Germaine’s childhood was destroyed by vindictive abusers, she learned early in life how to escape from reality into fantasy. She has difficulty in sustaining relationships, and fails to ‘articulate the images in her mind’. Her live-in lover has moved out, and she leads a solitary but contented existence, finding comfort in playing ‘Happy Family’, an augmented reality game, because ‘inside the bubble was better than outside’.