A novel of naivety set in TUSCANY
A story of fandom set in LONDON and TORONTO
6th October 2026
Esther Is Now Following You by Tanya Sweeney, a story of fandom set in London and Toronto.
I read this for Grazia Book Club, October 2026.
In London, Esther has been married to Johnny for a couple of years and they are in the midst of trying to get pregnant, following prescribed rules about insemination. As Johnny helpfully whispers “Teamwork makes the dreamwork“.
But after a miscarriage – which, as a couple, they refer to as ‘what happened in June‘ – there is a real sense that Esther’s mind might be elsewhere. And indeed it is.
Johnny tries to work on patching them up as a couple and together they visit a couples therapist, to work on themselves and their loss. The therapist states, however, that “Unfortunately grief isn’t my area of expertise as I am a relationship therapist“. Oh, for crying out loud, grief counselling is well within the remit of a relationship therapist (I know, I trained as one) and it was at this point I began to lose faith in this novel (at page 73) that actually started so well. There was humour and good observation and a competent storyline was in the process of being built – until that point.
The thing is, Esther has had brief eye contact in a park with Ted Levy, who is an actor and she just falls for him. He resides in Toronto, Canada, so she is unlikely to happen upon him again in London. Thus, she turns to stalking. She follows him on Facebook with a newly created identity, she drills down into his family and friends in order to glean as much as she can about his life. She joins the groupies. She then contacts him (cue cringe) and then takes herself off to Toronto.
This is a simplistic account of the effect of loss and accumulated previous trauma on a person, driven crazy and there is no accounting for Esther’s actions. It is written with wit, but I found myself caring not a jot for Esther nor Ted, nor any of the other characters who populated the pages. At base, this tragicomedy story of fandom felt a pretty daft read, with an awful lot of elements that were toe-curling. Absolutely not one for me.
Setting isn’t at all strong.
And PS. a warning from the publisher: This book contains themes and subject matter some readers might find disturbing.
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