Strange Sally Diamond reviewed in The Times

Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent

James Owen

March 18th 2023

When Sally Diamond’s adoptive father dies, she takes him at his word and puts him out with the trash. This is the first clue that Sally may not understand the world’s norms, but while we might think this indicates neurodivergency, it turns out the chief cause is her very dark childhood. All Ireland knows the horrific circumstances of this, for she and her mother were kept confined by an abusive kidnapper. Sally cannot recall, however, anything that happened to her before she was seven.

As her new identity is revealed to the world, she begins to come to terms with it, and even find the possibility of happiness. Yet from the other side of the globe, and from closer to home, the legacy of the past also reaches out to her. Victims can become perpetrators too, says Liz Nugent, in this strikingly well-observed and consistently surprising psychodrama.

Sandycove, 384pp; £14.99. Buy it for £11.99