Description

There s a trick to time. You can make it expand or you can make it contract. Make it shorter or make it longer . . .

Some moments you want to last forever. Some moments shape a life.

For Mona, it s the joy of playing on a Wexford beach as a young girl, next to her family s cottage overlooking the Irish sea. The thrill of moving to Birmingham with a new job and a room of her own in a busy boarding-house. Meeting the love of her life; a whirlwind marriage; a sudden, tragic loss.

But now, decades later, Mona is determined to find happiness before it s too late. She knows that every moment is precious. But can we ever let go of the past that shaped us?

Devastatingly emotional. De Waal s storytelling gives us the poetry and sorrow of life itself Financial Times

Weaving tragedy and joy, big themes and the minutiae of life, this is a love story to take on the classics Emerald Street

An emotionally sure-handed novel exploring harrowing terrain with deft sensitivity Sunday Times