This deeply moving debut novel by Sharon Guard skilfully depicts an Irish woman's determination to overcome the psychological damage caused by past trauma.

Ailish McCarthy is not doing well. Outwardly successful – career, beautiful home, wealthy husband, two daughters reared and on the cusp of their own lives – inwardly she is crumbling.

Her relationship with her mother was complicated and difficult, the grief following her death unnaturally prolonged. As much as she wants to move forward, Ailish is caught in a spiral with her ghosts.

In order to escape them, she must resolve her past. Revisit it. Construct again, from memory, the family and friends who shaped her, the boy she could not forget, the changing Ireland which provided the backdrop for their lives.

Under the guidance of her therapist, Ailish begins the process of examining her previous selves: anxious child, traumatised teenager, adult woman riven with a never-to-be-shared secret. From these uniquely broken shards, can she assemble a present self, a whole self, one she can live with?