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Pub date April 26, 2021

ISBN 9780578867410

Price $14.95 (USD) Paperback, $6.12 Kindle

Wilshin makes her foray into fiction with this tightly wound, emotionally harrowing tale. It’s 1949. A tragic incident separates Evan and Beatrice from their birth mother. The siblings soon get adopted into a new family. Thirty year later, the duo is still struggling with their past demons. While Victor (Evan) begins to look for Grace, his birth mother, Bibi (Beatrice) has no intention of doing so, unaware she has another sister who is also trying to locate Grace. Wilshin beautifully tackles complex themes of abandonment, adoption, anguish, and familial love through her multifaceted, realistic characters as they try to come to terms with their personal traumas. The siblings, particularly Victor and Bibi are psychologically dysfunctional, owing to their traumatic past as children of a mother who was emotionally fragile and physically absent. While Bibi bottles everything inside, Victor suffers from suppressed rage and guilt, unable to let go of the tragic childhood experience. Wilshin’s writing is assured and lyrical, and charged with meaning, and the dash of magical realism adds to the intrigue. What makes this novel seductively readable is Wilshin’s ability to bring her characters and their complex inner lives to life. Wilshin is an author to watch.