Carol Lefevre’s lyrical second novel charts the interwoven lives of three women over three decades, all coming to terms with the pervasive effects of loss and abandonment; themes previously explored in her debut novel, Nights in the Asylum. The story hinges on the traumatic events of one afternoon in February 1962, when Esther Hayes witnesses the tragic death of her son. Subsumed by grief, she isolates herself from young daughter, Aurora, who is left to mourn the loss of her mother’s affection amidst the lonely expanses of outback Australia.

As an adult, Aurora leaves behind the difficult landscape of her childhood to pursue unfamiliar ancestral ties in the rain-soaked city of Dublin. There she connects with Rose, a confused sixteen-year-old girl, deserted by her mother as an infant and burdened with an unexpected pregnancy. Lefevre strikes at the core of the human desire to attach and be attached: through reaching out to Rose, Aurora is able to reconcile her past and rediscover the joys of maternal love. A novel that celebrates the profound bond between mother and child.