First published 2017
Mary Rose MacKinnon sits at her breakfast table on an ordinary Monday morning. She has put her career on hold to raise her children, Maggie and Matthew. Her partner Hilary has left for a work trip, leaving Mary Rose to manage alone for a week. Small irritations mount. Someone has dented the refrigerator. Maggie appears suddenly holding scissors. The car remote has vanished. Hilary's tired voice on evening phone calls provides little comfort. When Mary Rose's parents arrive with their well-meaning eccentricities, they trigger memories Mary Rose would rather forget. The visit pulls her back to a childhood illness and a family secret that everyone agreed to erase from their history. As the days progress from Monday through Sunday, present chaos weaves together with buried memories. Mary Rose discovers how daily life can unravel and reveal truths about the weight we carry without knowing.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
544 pages · Paperback · Lumen
Content warnings: mental-illness