Case Histories: A Novel

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses child sexual abuse, the death of a child, murder, violence, domestic violence, suicide, and rape.

This chapter recounts a day in the life of the Land family during the summer of 1970. Rosemary and Victor Land are unhappily married and have four daughters. Victor ignores Rosemary while spending most of his time working on his mathematics research and his job as a professor at Newnham College. Rosemary feels overwhelmed by their lively daughters Sylvia, Amelia, and Julia, but dotes on the youngest, Olivia. She has recently discovered she is pregnant again and dreads adding another child to the bunch.

The girls spend most of their time playing outside and avoiding their parents during the summer. They run wild and are prone to injuries, and many of their exploits are instigated by Sylvia, the eldest and the ringleader. They all adore Olivia and spoil her. Rosemary is exhausted by the heat and her pregnancy, and she makes the girls go to bed early. She tells Amelia that she can sleep in a tent in the yard with Olivia. The girls have been begging to do this all summer, and Amelia is elated to be chosen.