Clementina is barely sixteen when she falls pregnant. Other girls had been put out on the highroad for less, but Clementina's Dei and Dadus stand by her. But the Travellers are treated with suspicion wherever they go, and soon the family are rounded up by the 'gavvers', accused of poisoning local livestock.
Romy Kilkenny loves her life in Australia, she has her dream job, lots of mates, and a best friend in Keith, who understands her better than anyone. Best of all, she couldn't be further from her family. But when her brother rings to say she's needed back in Ireland right away, Romy's world is turned upside down. Flying home to see her mother and her half-siblings, Romy doubts she'll fit in better now than she ever did. She also worries that the accidental half-kiss with Keith at the airport may have brought their easy friendship to a sudden end. Whatever lies ahead, it's not what Romy's expecting - even the people we grow up with can surprise us, and if love is to be found, it will find a way.
From the author of the international number one bestseller 'I Know This Much is True' comes a novel which explores the consequence of violent events, and the chaos that ensues, for human lives blown irrevocably of course.
The pain of Lucile, my mother, was part of our childhood and later adult life for my sister and me, but any attempt at an explanation was doomed to failure. Writing about it cannot heal it, but at least it allows me to ask questions and query memory. This is about family memory, where moments of brightness and joy can live side-by-side with grief, wounds and the most hidden of family secrets. "La douleur de Lucile, ma mère, a fait partie de notre enfance et plus tard de notre vie d'adulte, la douleur de Lucile sans doute nous constitue, ma sœur et moi, mais toute tentative d'explication est vouée à l'échec. L'écriture n'y peut rien, tout au plus me permet-elle de poser les questions et d'interroger la mémoire. La famille de Lucile, la nôtre par conséquent, a suscité tout au long de son histoire de nombreux hypothèses et commentaires. Les gens que j'ai croisés au cours de mes recherches parlent de fascination ; je l'ai souvent entendu dire dans mon enfance. Ma famille incarne ce que la joie a de plus bruyant, de plus spectaculaire, l'écho inlassable des morts, et le retentissement du désastre. Aujourd'hui je sais aussi qu'elle illustre, comme tant d'autres familles, le pouvoir de destruction du Verbe, et celui du silence. Le livre, peut-être, ne serait rien d'autre que ça, le récit de cette quête, contiendrait en lui-même sa propre genèse, ses errances narratives, ses tentatives inachevées. Mais il serait cet élan, de moi vers elle, hésitant et inabouti. Dans cette enquête éblouissante au cœur de la mémoire familiale, où les souvenirs les plus lumineux côtoient les secrets les plus enfouis, ce sont toutes nos vies, nos failles et nos propres blessures que Delphine de Vigan déroule avec force"--Amazon.com, viewed January 12, 2012.
In the beginning they were three. Joanna and Ted Kramer, and four-year-old Billy -- his big brown eyes bright with curiosity and wonder. A perfect family. Then on day the mother abandons them. Divorce. And now they are two. Father and son. Caring and cared for, learning what loving and belonging are all about, until there is a bond between them that nothing can break. Nothing and nobody -- except maybe a mother who, almost two years later, changes her mind and wants her little boy back. This book was made into a movie by the same title.
Stone cradle by Louise Doughty | Literally Just Books
