Eva Trout by Elizabeth Bowen is the author’s last completed novel. It was first published in 1968.

Eva Trout has been abandoned by her mother just after her birth and brought up by nannies. Her father is fabulously wealthy, but he also abandons her when he commits suicide leaving Eva all of his money. She’s still a schoolgirl and ends up living with one of her old schoolteachers, one of the few people that Eva had liked.

The women that her father had employed to look after Eva had all had English as their second language, so she has picked up their way of speaking English and doesn’t seem at all normal.  Constantine, her father’s old business partner is in control of her money and Eva doesn’t trust him.  As soon as she can Eva takes charge of her own life, something that she’s not really equipped to do, and her actions have big repercussions for others.

I’m sort of conflicted about this book as I really didn’t like Eva for a large part of it and for me the ending was too abrupt.