{Reviewed by STELLA}

Esther Gerritsen’s second novel to be translated into English is Roxy. I recently read Craving and was so taken with this Dutch writer’s style, her succinct language, dark wit, beguiling scenarios and odd characters that I was pleased to be able to venture forth again. When Roxy is woken by police officers in the early hours of the morning she thinks the worse and is right. Her husband, Arthur, has died in a car accident. Not only is he dead, his young intern has been killed in the accident also, the pair found together, naked, the car on the shoulder of the road. Roxy is startlingly emotionally unresponsive - initially as the reader you feel that this is 'Roxy in shock' but, as she continues to make inappropriate comments, act in an alarming way and seems far from the grieving widow, you begin to wonder about her sanity. Her famous film-maker husband, the man she met as a teenager and ran away from home for, is suddenly someone she didn’t know as well as she thought - Roxy’s world begins to collapse in on itself. Roxy needs to attend to their three-year-old daughter, Louise. It is clear from the beginning that her abilities as a wife and mother have never been the most wonderful and the household has relied on the talents of Liza, the babysitter and Jane, Arthur’s very capable PA. Roxy’s answer to the mess of her life is to bed the undertaker, and, once the press gets wind of this, to run away. The answer to her problems is a road trip, in the guise of a holiday for Louise, with Liza and Jane in tow. For Roxy, this is the only logical thing to do. She’s been on the run for years from herself, even when she’s been hiding out in her marriage. We are introduced to Arthur through Roxy’s eyes and feel she is vindicated in her desire for revenge, but it’s hard to avenge yourself on a dead man. The more we find out about Roxy, her parents, and her childhood, and watch her act inappropriately and make odd comments, unable to articulate her feelings, the more we see an unhinged young woman heading towards a psychological crash, blatantly accelerating. Gerritsen's skillful writing creates tension with its forward-propelling relentless plot, a compelling awkward narrator and uncertain outcomes. The clever ironic conversations between the characters and zany happenings hit you like a slap, while what is unsaid, what is hinted at and implied between the words and lines on the page, jolts you awake. Like Craving, Roxy is a candid portrayal of damage and trauma, sometimes shocking, often blackly funny.