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´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

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Tender with a fierce undercurrent of tension and heartbreak Jane Shemilt, bestselling author of ´Daughter´

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Waal, Kit de
Kit de Waal, born to an Irish mother and Caribbean father, was brought up among the Irish community of Birmingham in the 60´s and 70´s. Her debut novel My Name Is Leon was an international bestseller, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, long-listed for the Desmond Elliott Prize and won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award for 2017.

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