The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna
Cannon is definitely worth considering for your next adult book group
selection. This debut novel, set in England,
oscillates between 1967 and 1976. The title refers to good and evil, the “goats”
and “sheep,” of Matthew’s Gospel (25: 31-46), a metaphor for sorting according to actions towards one another.
A
primary narrator is almost 10 year old Grace, who with her young friend, Tilly,
sets out to solve the mysterious disappearance of a neighbor, Mrs. Creasy. Grace is certainly precocious and in some ways
reminiscent of other child sleuths, like Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce, but she
is not as astute (leave that more to friend Tilly) and is more anchored in the
life of a neighborhood where people care deeply about what others think. In fact, being different, which applies to
Grace and Tilly as well as to outcast neighbor Walter Bishop, carries a high
price in this small-minded, insular community. Author (and psychiatrist) Cannon
has one of her characters assert, “People tend to believe things just because
everyone else does….They don’t search for proof, they just search for approval….”
As the
summer heatwave begins in 1976, the girls decide to look for God in order to make
everyone happier and to bring Mrs. Creasy home and the residents of the avenue
together. Their search leads to
discussions at numerous houses along the street and to the implication of long
buried secrets, many associated with a fire that occurred nine years earlier. The
story is told deftly and humor is often interspersed (as when a new family
moves in). The Trouble with Goats and
Sheep received a starred review from Booklist. Publisher Simon
& Schuster provides this online readers’ guide and an excerpt.
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