We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, 308 pages.
Rosemary tells us the tale of her broken family. Her brother Lowell left years ago and something happened to her sister, Fern. Rosemary doesn't tell us what right away, she lets her secrets out gradually. Fern was a chimpanzee raised as Rosemary's sister as part of her father's experiment.
Fowler tells of a time when this was a common sort of experiment with half-a-dozen animal-family experiments going on around the country. Lowell and Rosemary are left broken by the splitting of their family, and they both have to find a way to go on.
An engaging tale of family secrets, good intentions, and tragic results.

Hot Milk

Hot Milk by Deborah Levy, 218 pages.
Deborah Levy, has written a number of books, including a novel, Swimming Home,which was shortlisted for the Booker in 2012,of which I have to confess I was unaware. She is a really good writer though; quiet, fun, and engaging, so this was my loss. Sofia, our protagonist, is an all-but-dissertation anthropologist who was working as a barista and caring for her mother, a self-centered and controlling hypochondriac named Rose. Sofia has been relying in turn on her mother for financial support. She and Rose have now traveled from England to Almeria, in southern Spain, to see specialist Dr. Gomez in the hope that he can somehow help  Rose with her ever growing list of imagined maladies. In Almeria Sofia encounters jellyfish and attractive strangers and begins to see a way back to her own life. Sofia is a charming character, unembarrassed by her many flaws and aware of all that she is quietly enduring. She and other characters talk about the confusion they face in their lives, the effect that others have upon them, and the roles they are forced to play, A well-written and enjoyable book.