Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness.

Lila’s house is symbolic of family life. She and Dan purchased it together when they were still married. It is “a large, ‘quirky’ […] doer-upper in a leafy part of north London” (2). Although the house is old and idiosyncratic, Lila has always “been enchanted by the decades-old bathroom suites in mint green and raspberry” and seen the off-kilter space as “charming and quaint” (2). The house therefore represents the positive and negative aspects of family life. It has its problems—most notably, an ongoing plumbing issue—but it’s also where Lila, Dan, and their daughters built their life together.

In the wake of Lila’s divorce, the house begins to feel more like a burden than a blessing. Dan is gone, and Lila feels alone while trying to manage domestic responsibilities on her own. Meanwhile, a series of unfamiliar “items keep appearing in her house, already clumped with piles of boxes from the move that she still hasn’t had the energy to unpack, or things that the girls won’t find a home for but cannot be got rid of so sit in corners, gathering dust” (45). As Bill surreptitiously moves in, his belongings also clutter the space.