So Many Ways to Begin

David Carter cannot help but wish for more: that his wife Eleanor would be the sparkling girl he once found so irresistible; that his job as a museum curator could live up to the promise it once held; that his daughter’s arrival could have brought him closer to Eleanor. But a few careless words spoken by his mother’s friend have left David restless with the knowledge that his whole life has been constructed around a lie.

Reviews of So Many Ways to Begin

'McGregor's careful prose is sharpened by anticipation and expectation' Observer 'An homage to ordinary people and ordinary things, to the parts of our lives that often go unspoken … moving and honest' The Times 'McGregor's meticulous syntax melts into a hot flood of words … This is a decorous novel that rises on occasion to ardour … An intimate tale with penetrating things to say about the wider history of twentieth-century Britain' Lucy Hughes-Hallett, Sunday Times 'This is a novel of character and atmosphere … The relationship between David and Eleanor from youth to age, imperfect, deeply loving, underpins the whole … a book about the search for greater meaning in the strange dance of chance' Carol Birch, Independent