Our Endless Numbered Days

So I started up a mini-bookclub at work. And by mini, I mean me and one other person. Our first (and so far, only) set book is one that my colleague found on the Richard and Judy reads for Spring 2016. “Our Endless Numbered Days”, the debut novel by Claire Fuller, looked interesting and whimsical, and is also the title of one of my favourite albums by the band Iron & Wine. Also, the cover looked super pretty. We ordered our copies from Fishpond and waited for them to arrive.

In person, “Our Endless Numbered Days” is a gorgeous book. The cover is all blue and silver with embossing on the title and author’s name. It looks like it should contain a fairy story and belies the much darker tale that lies within. This is a story about an eight year old girl named Peggy who lives with her mother, a famous concert pianist, and her father, who is obsessed with survival in the event of some kind of apocalypse. After a summer of skiving off school and surviving in the backyard in a tent and hunting squirrels, Peggy’s father takes her from their privileged life in the UK to a remote cabin in Europe and tells her that the whole world, including her mother, is gone.

Fuller is a beautiful writer, and while this is a rather slow-paced book that focuses on everyday minutiae, she is extremely skilled at maintaining tension and keeping the reader engaged. This is a story of subtlety, where the sinister and the innocent are intertwined. I wish I could tell you more about this book, actually, but I really don’t want to spoil it for you.

So, if you’re looking for a story that will linger with you for a while, “Our Endless Numbered Days” is your book.