Eva Moves the FurnitureThere is an old bit of Scottish folklore that says if you see a magpie on the windowsill it means imminent death. The myth became truth for Eva McEwen who was born in 1920 while a magpie perched outside the window. Soon after, Eva's mother dies and she is left to be raised by her father and her aunt Lily in the small Scottish town of Troon.
When she is six, Eva is visited by a woman and a young girl, and she soon discovers that no one else can see them. They become her boon "companions," as Eva calls them, only occasionally making themselves known to others when they move the furniture around her home or finish her chores in record time for her. Those odd occurrences only make Eva seem that much more fragile and strange to her real-life companions.
As Eva grows up, her relationship with the woman and child seems is no longer as easy for her to accept with childlike innocence. Are they guardian angels? After all, they saved her life twice. But sometimes they seem more like evil spirits, like when they cause her to lose her job and her boyfriend. As she explores the questions about her companions, she delves into the connection between death and life, religion and myth, and mother and child. (2002 - Picador)
