First published 1977
Anne Linton drives to the nursing home where her father now lives. At forty-five, she has settled into the routines of marriage to a solicitor and raising children. But these visits to her aging father begin to crack open assumptions she has carried for decades. Small conversations and forgotten memories surface unexpected truths about the man who raised her. The revelations ripple outward, forcing Anne to examine her husband with new eyes and question how well she really knows her own children. Each discovery builds on the last, creating a chain reaction that threatens the careful balance of her middle-class life. Anne must decide whether to retreat into familiar patterns or face the uncomfortable reality that the people closest to her remain, in many ways, strangers. The nursing home visits become a journey inward, where family bonds prove both stronger and more fragile than she imagined.
Genres: 20th-century, contemporary, adult-fiction, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, family-dynamics, self-discovery
Setting: Lichfield
Period: 20th-century
224 pages · Hardcover · Grove Weidenfeld