How It All Began - Penelope Lively

I was drawn to this because I liked the idea that the first book I started after the birth of my son should be by the author of 'Consequences', which I had thoroughly enjoyed when my daughter was a newborn. It didn't quite live up to expectations though; I found the narrator's observations about the far-reaching effects of the initial chance encounter (a mugging in which an elderly woman's hip is broken) jarringly heavy-handed, and I must confess to being sentimental enough to find the ending, particularly to the storyline about her daughter's growing friendship with an Eastern European immigrant, a little unsatisfying.