Edward St Aubyn returns to his characters from Double Blind (2021) in his latest novel, Parallel Lines.
The novel opens with the stories of Sebastian and Olivia; twins who are separated at birth and experience vastly different upbringings- Olivia enjoys the comforts of upper middle-class life, whilst Sebastian, thrown into foster care from birth, is surviving life in an institution after a schizophrenic episode.
Foisted into the lives of Sebastian and Olivia are Martin (Olivia's father and Sebastian's current psychotherapist) and his wife Lizzie- both psychoanalysts and scholars of Lacan. As each character strives to make sense of their identity in a glib world on the brink of ecological and civilisational collapse, St Aubyn weaves their lives into a broader story of humanity: the biological and environmental factors that shape us and the lies we tell ourselves in order to survive.
Through rigorous psychoanalysis and detailed plotting, Edward St Aubyn hides philosophical truths about human and nature's interconnectedness in an age of atomisation, in a sharp, coyly funny family drama.
Although Parallel Lines continues the journeys of characters from his previous novel, it can be read as a stand-alone story.
