Originally conceived as a play, the author took the decision to re-work it as a novel.
It tells the story of Mary. At under two months of age in 1949, she is adopted by a married couple,. James and Carol Rowland, who found Mary in a home for unmarried mothers.
Mary has a happy and fulfilled life with her adopted parents and she accepts with equimenity the fact that her birth mother, Ruth, gave her up for adoption.
However, when Mary is 28, and a mother in her own right, old, unasked questions come to the fore. Why was her mother unmarried? Why was Mary, apparently, so easily given up for adoption?
The focus of the story then shifts to that of Ruth. We see the horrific childhood that blighted Ruth and so many people of her generation, torn from the life she knew and transported to the Nazi death camp, Birkenau, where she knew real suffering and horrendous deprivation.
After the liberation of Birkenau and the end of the war she attempts to make a new life for herself in the austerity of postwar Europe. But the shock discovery of her pregnancy breaks her, forcing to give her child up for adoption.
However, when Ruth receives a letter from her long-lost daughter, Mary, it is decided to arrange a meeting between them, a meeting that will life changing for the both of them.
This is a thoughtful and very moving debut novel from an author who it is to be hoped will have many more books to bring forward in the future.
It's published by The Book Guild at £9.99 and is available for purchase here https://goo.gl/wdCFDG.
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