'Exquisitely crafted, incisive, and full of richly hued shadows and sudden depths, The Unknowing examines what it means to be an artist, a daughter, a mother—and the near impossibility of succeeding at all three.'
Krystelle Bamford, Saltires Debut Fiction Award-shortlisted author of Idle Grounds

'An unusually poised debut that captures perfectly the equivocal gifts of family and the lifelong—and likely impossible—task of learning to bear the weight of our inheritances with grace.'
Keiran Goddard, Gordon Burn Prize-longlisted author of I See Buildings Fall Like Lightening

'Totally gripping from start to finish. Such classy, original prose and a story that I didn't want to end.'
Roxy Dunn, author of As Young As This

Celebrated novelist Frances Oppenheimer has long been an enigma, a mystery even to her closest observer: her daughter. In the shadow of a family tragedy never spoken of, she has retreated even further, and her absence has loomed larger still.

Now turning to the page herself, Frances' daughter finds she cannot move beyond the one subject she has spent her life researching. Combining inherited stories, overheard conversations, family heirlooms, and scenes of her own imagination, she sets out to assemble a portrait that may at last bring her mother into view.

Precise and poignant, The Unknowing is a striking debut exploring how fiction refracts truth, how families create their own mythologies, and how we reinvent the people we love in order to understand ourselves.