Love Forms

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ENCORE AWARD
LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE AND THE JHALAK PRIZE


A Book of the Year in The Times and The Critic

A quietly devastating masterpiece. MARIAN KEYES
Adam is a master storyteller.SARA COLLINS
Love Forms achieves a sort of alchemy.FINANCIAL TIMES
Reads like a Claire Keegan short story expanded by Elizabeth Strout.THE TIMES


In the heart-aching new novel from the author of the award-winning Golden Child, a mother searches for the daughter she left behind a lifetime ago.

Trinidad, 1980: Dawn Bishop, aged 16, leaves her home and journeys across the sea to Venezuela. There, she gives birth to a baby girl, and leaves her with nuns to be given up for adoption.

Dawn tries to carry on with her life - a move to England, a marriage, a career, two sons, a divorce - but through it all, she still thinks of the child she had in Venezuela, and of what might have been.

Then, forty years later, a woman from an internet forum gets in touch. She says that she might be Dawns long-lost daughter, stirring up a complicated mix of feelings: could this be the person to give form to all the love and care a mother has left to offer?

From the very first page, I knew I was in the hands of a master storyteller. An utterly arresting tale of love and grief, of the wounding and healing powers of family, of the many guises of a mothers love. Its an absolute triumph.

SARA COLLINS
Exquisitely written. A compelling and tender story of what - and who - is hidden in almost every family that feels as old as the hills and yet acutely contemporary.

MONIQUE ROFFEY
An arresting voice that made me think of silk: its delicate beauty belies its intrinsic strength.

CLAIRE KILROY
A compelling read taking us to the heart of difficult family situations and evocative secret places.

ROMESH GUNESEKERA