Great Expectations

'Expectation' by Anna Hope (Transworld, 2019)

A few years ago, I read Anna Hope's 'Wake', a thoughtful novel set in the aftermath of the First World War and structured around the return of the Unknown Warrior.  This was followed by 'The Ballroom', also set in the early 20th century.  In the forthcoming 'Expectation', Hope arrives in the 21st century with a story of three modern women and the challenges faced when dreams don't become reality.

London, 2004: Hannah, Cate and Lissa are best friends, housemates with their whole lives ahead of them and high hopes for successful careers, fulfilling relationships and ongoing friendship.  But ten years on, they are not where they expected to be.  Despite their best efforts, things have not gone to plan - in work, in marriage or in motherhood.  As the gap between their twenty-something aspirations and the thirty-something reality dawns, they struggle to reconcile the two.  Faced with an overwhelming desire to salvage something of their youthful hopes and dreams, each acts desperately in a last ditch attempt to find the satisfaction they crave.  As obsession, lust and regret take hold, can their friendship survive its greatest test?


'Expectation' is a story of female mid-life crisis.  It's hits a nerve that's probably even more sensitive for recent generations, those who have hard-won legal equality and better opportunities than ever before, but are still expected to tick the boxes of husband and children and plough on despite workplace structures built for men.  We tell our girls they can achieve anything, but is it really that easy for women to achieve their ambitions, even now?

Despite their education and middle-class privilege, Hannah, Cate and Lissa face familiar female dilemmas.  Each deals with the irreconcilable difference between what they want and what they can have differently, and it's a credit to Hope's writing that I still felt compassion towards them even when I despaired at their actions.

Overall, I found 'Expectation' to be a thoughtful, honest, challenging page-turner that showed Hope's skill at painting realistic relationships and personalising contemporary themes at its best.  It's not a book for those uncomfortable with sex scenes or content about IVF / fertility, but otherwise this is a very timely book which recognises the internal conflicts of a generation of women.

Now, what next..?

'Expectation' by Anna Hope is due out 11/07/2019. This review is based on an uncorrected proof received free of charge from the publisher.