Kehua is the story of a family touching on four generations. Beverley moves to the UK from New Zealand, with several unappeased Kehua – or Maori spirits – in tow. We meet many characters from Beverley’s extended family, and many categories of spirit, in this meandering tale of family division and reunion. But the novel is so skilfully crafted that I never felt lost or mislead, and the writing has a lovely lightness to it, despite dealing with ‘heavy’ subjects such as murder and incest. It is a delightful novel about the untidiness of the world, and Weldon not only presents us her dysfunctional characters, but also ‘herself’ the author, and characters from her own life, thus wonderfully blurring the boundaries to discuss the process of novel-writing.