When debut novel The Names by Florence Knapp opens, a young mother named Cora is faced with a task: she is to register the name of her baby boy in the small town where she lives. Her husband has instructed her to give the boy his name and the name of his father – Gordon. But she doesn’t want to, because her husband is a brutal, abusive man and she doesn’t want her baby son to carry on that legacy. What follows is a Sliding Doors story with three alternate plotlines – one in which she gives him that name, and two in which she doesn’t. Knapp revisits the lives of Cora, the boy, and his older sister Maia every seven years, checking in on them in the three different lives that follow from that fateful afternoon. This is really a book about abuse and survival, with three different paths out. I thought it was an excellent read. It’s almost relentlessly sad, but also beautifully written and creative in its construction. Characters from one strand show up in the other ones in different contexts, and certain themes – Cora’s love of ballet from her former life of a dancer, her affinity for gardening.- become throughlines that highlight the contrasts between the lives. If you can withstand the abuse scenes, I highly recommend this book. It has stuck with me now for a few weeks and I suspect it will for a very long time.