The Forgotten Affairs of Youth

October 31, 2011
You needn’t be a series-long admirer of Isabel Dalhousie to be beguiled by this curious philosopher and casual sleuth. In this eighth installment—with the ruminating Edinburgh heroine steeped in devoted motherhood, impending marriage, and office and family intrigue—it might even help to be a stranger to her more daring exploits; here, No. 1 Ladies’ Detectives Agency series phenom McCall Smith has his quirky gumshoe stalking moral intrigue more doggedly than mystery. It’s Isabel’s mission to help a visiting Australian philosopher find her father after her adoptive parents and birth mother die. The task is deceptively easy and never comes close to matching the confounding mysteries of Isabel’s niece’s fickle heart, the wisdom of ratting her out to health officials for a batch of toxic mushrooms, the impermanence of the greatest love of her life, or how to raise her adorable toddler with fiancé Jamie. Isabel believes only the examined life is worth living, and fearlessly so: “she would never accept things as they were. That was what made her do what she did—practice philosophy—and what made her... do battle for understanding, for sympathy, for love; in small ways... that cumulatively made a difference.” It makes Isabel a heroine worth following, even through this more quiet, reflective foray.

Starred review from February 27, 2012
In this latest installment of McCall Smith’s Isabel Dalhousie series, when an Australian philosopher named Jane Cooper comes to Edinburgh, she asks Isabel to trace her family history. Jane knows almost nothing of the woman who gave her up for adoption 40 years earlier, except her name and that she is deceased. Isabel gladly jumps in to help, eventually finding former college friends, boyfriends, and lovers. Narrator Davina Porter—who has read many McCall Smith titles—is, as always, perfection. She rolls out a Scottish brogue and a variety of regional accents, renders an acceptable Australian accent, and creates believable voices for the novel’s many characters. Her voice is soft and smooth, pleasingly musical, and endlessly enthralling. The story doesn’t rely on action-packed thrills or volatile emotional drama, but on the thought-provoking and touching contemplations of Smith’s protagonist—and for this Porter is the ideal narrator, making for a gentle but entertaining listen. A Pantheon hardcover.