'A gripping story of family betrayal, full of passion and anger … moving and memorable' Rose Tremain

‘Harrowing, poignant and ambitious … a definite for book clubs’ Nina Bhadreshwar

A lost child.

When Mivvi is young, her mother Belle is a puzzle: beautiful, troubled, and, terrifyingly, increasingly disconnected from the world.

A displaced mother.

Belle came to England upon her marriage, a whirlwind romance from the beaches of Mombasa to the English suburbs. But far from friends and family, her life and love affair began to crumble.

A family secret.

As Mivvi grows up in the shadow of her mother's illnesses and her father's absences, she must reconnect the pieces that her mother scattered. Can she uncover the secrets clouding their past – and in doing so rewrite her own story?

Travelling from the beaches of Mombasa to the suburbs of England and then on to the teeming streets of Kolkata, a powerful story of mothers and daughters, betrayal and madness and a child who must forge her own identity.