Someone else’s shoes

Two women with almost nothing in common end up with each other's belongings after a bag is picked up by the wrong person, and neither life stays where it was. Jojo Moyes turns that accident into a novel about money, status and starting again. One character has lost the security she assumed was permanent; the other has been managing on very little for years. Moyes follows both, letting comedy and hard circumstance sit side by side, and the friendship that forms between the women carries the second half of the book. The writing keeps the pace of commercial fiction while taking its characters' financial and emotional pressures seriously. What this book does well: • Two contrasting narratives that gradually converge • Humour balanced against real questions of debt and dependence • Characters written for readers who like fiction grounded in ordinary life • A pace that suits book clubs and holiday reading alike For readers of contemporary women's fiction, book-club organisers and followers of the author's earlier novels, stocked by Boipoka.