The Rest of Her Life

The Rest of Her Life is a luminous compassionate and provocative look at how mothers and daughters with the best intentions can be blind to the harm they do to one another.

Leigh is the mother of high-achieving, popular high school senior Kara. Their relationship is already strained when, in a moment of carelessness, Kara makes a mistake that ends in tragedy - the effects of which not only divides Leigh’s family, but polarise the entire community. Leigh recounts the events of the summer that follows the tragedy, grappling with the hard reality of what her daughter has done and the devastating consequences of her actions on the family of another teenage girl in town, all while struggling to protect Kara in the face of rising public outcry.

Like the best works of Jane Hamilton, Jodi Picoult, and Alice Sebold, Laura Moriarty’s The Rest of Her Life is a novel of complex moral dilemma, filled with nuanced characters and a page-turning plot that makes readers ask themselves, ‘What would I do?’.

‘Gripping, thought-provoking, and difficult to stop until the end.’ - Anne-Maree Lourey, Newcastle Herald

‘…an emotional and thoughtful read’ - Melissa Wilson, Good Reading