Children's authors get a rough press in fiction. The celebrated The Children's Book features an author who writes adventures for her progeny, appropriating their names for stories which disregard their true identities. The fate of real-life literary offspring such as Christopher Robin and Peter Llewellyn-Davies casts rather a shadow over the halcyon adventures of classic children's fiction but without these antecedents, as a society we are always primed to look for the lie - the break-up behind the two glowing celebrities' perfect marriage, the crack in the smile, the secret sorrow in success. We write our own interpretation of their lives onto their faces, but The Roundabout Man poses the question of how one can understand one's own identity when it has been appropriated by the rest of the world.

For my full review:
http://girlwithherheadinabook.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/the-roundabout-man-clare-morrall.html