I very much enjoyed this novel. Which is mostly set in Trinidad and tells the story of Dawn who age 16 in find yourself I’m happily pregnant after a one night stand during carnival with a holiday maker. Her family Centre across the sea to Venezuela to stay in a mother and baby home run by nuns and the baby is immediately taken away and put up for adoption. We meet again at 58 when she starts actively searching for the Child his birth has been something that has not been talked about at all in the family since it happened.
Although do you want us to move to the UK in adulthood the majority of this novel is set in the Caribbean which adds an an extra element to the story
The author has a clear easily read writing style which is a pleasure to read. She has the ability to describe character as well and the people in her novel seem completely three-dimensional real people. It’s interesting to watch Dawn grow and see how her experiences have affected her throughout her life .

Originally copy of the novel on NetGalley UK in return for Non by his review. The book is published in the UK on the 19th of June 2025 by Faber and Faber Ltd.
This review will appear on NetGalley UK, StoryGraph, Goodreads, and my book blog bionicSarahSbooks.wordpress.com. After publication will also appear on Amazon UK.

A teacher once told me: good storytelling is building a wall with bricks, without anyone noticing the construction and/or the individual bricks. That's this story. It never feels constructed.

A beautiful book, told from the perspective of Dawn Bishop, born and raised in Trinidad where her family has worked hard and has become a household name. A teenage pregnancy after an encounter not even worthy of the name one night stand, is not in the family’s books and so Dawn travels the perilous sea to Venezuela to grow big and give birth there.
Life goes on as was, afterwards. So it seems, but not for Dawn.
We meet teenage Dawn through the eyes of 58 y/o Dawn, living in the UK, now divorced, two sons. It’s her voice, her memories that take us through her past and current. At 16 Dawn didn’t focus on any details that might, at 40, or at 58, help her find her daughter.

I loved the voice, the change of times, the growing up, how all characters evolved throughout time.

I received an eARC from NetGalley in return for my honest opinion

At 16, Dawn Bishop, white and rich, is secretly taken undercover of darkness, from her home in Trinidad to Venezuela. She’s to temporarily live with nuns until she gives birth, with the child being given up for adoption. She returns to Trinidad with a certain amount of bitterness and resumes her life. Now she’s Dawn Wilson and 58 years old, she’s been married, divorced and lives in England where she’s been for most of her life. Much of that time things are good and she has two grown-up sons although she’s had to downgrade her house and her London postcode following the divorce, her life is still okay. However, her mind is on the child she gives birth to all those years ago and she begins a search to see if she can find her. This is not just a search for an offspring, Dawn is searching for her sense of self to try to fill the void the baby leaves in her life and soul.

The start of the novel is really intriguing, an air of mystery as Dawn goes on the journey and what follows is a moving story as she describes her sadness, her confliction and other emotions really well and so I do feel empathy for her for what she has lost. She conveys her complicated life well, her complex relations with her sons, her mother and her brothers.

However, I think the storytelling of Dawn‘s search loses its way as it gets mixed up and infused with reflections on Trinidad and Venezuela, which whilst interesting, takes your eye off the search. I enjoy the Trinidad of her growing up years and then looking back at the age of 58 on how it has changed. There’s a lot on the political, economic and cultural situation of both Trinidad and Venezuela and the issues both places have today. There’s also her everyday life in her new home in Brockley (London) which compared to the rest is a bit mundane. Some of this causes me to lose some enthusiasm for the book which is a shame as the premise is a very good one. I suppose as much as anything it’s a love letter to Trinidad and the island is definitely on my bucket list.

The ending is a beautiful one, I feel what Dawn feels and it does choke me up and recollect.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Faber and Faber for the much appreciated Epub in return for an honest review.

A rather sad story of a mother who has built a life with two beautiful sons, but longs for the baby daughter she gave away when she was a girl. There is a dramatic description of how her family in Trinidad had her smuggled to Venezuela to secretly give birth and leave her baby with the nuns there. Having trained as a doctor in the UK and her marriage to a fellow medic fails she keeps trying to find her daughter. There are lovely descriptions of her family's life in Trinidad and Tobago where she often comes to visit.

Let’s start by saying ‘I absolutely loved this book’.

It is set in both Trinidad and Tobago and also London. But the main narrative happens in the Caribbean. I wanted to look up all the places as I read about them, but the story was so compelling that .i didn’t want to stop and search.

Dawn is the only daughter of a Trinidadian white family who have made their money in business selling fruit juices. At 16 Dawn makes her great ‘mistake’. She gets pregnant from a one night stand with a tourist and her family arrange for her to have the baby adopted. The rest of the story describes the effect this has on her life.

I felt all the characters were fully rounded and believable. Dawn herself, who narrates the story, is like someone you might know. She is self aware, she does her best to make her life a success, and on the outside at least she succeeds.. But marriage, career, children, apart, she still has a deep secret and a sad void in her life. So she does her best to find out what happened to her first baby.

I loved the writing, I felt very involved in Dawn’s story, and could hardly wait to read some more as I wanted her so much to heal. The descriptions of life in Trinidad are fascinating. There are tensions in the history of this island, and there are changes that. affect her family. The matter of fact way that they accept new dangers such as having to be careful while walking a few yards on the beach, and to have locked gates as well as houses, really brings home the reality of how easy it is to lose an easy and comfortable life style.

The book brings these social and cultural changes into the story but keeps well to its central theme ; the ties and bonds of motherhood.

Look forward to reading more by this author.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for my ARC copy.

I wanted to, and believed that I would, love this but sadly it didn’t gel with me at all. I had to force myself to read the whole thing as I just wasn’t hooked by the story or characters.

The first few chapters had me hooked, I was pulled into this chaotic scene with Dawn, with no context or explanation. However, from there I found the book to drag a little. The descriptions of Trinidad were beautiful, I could see her family home in my mind and feel the heat of the sun. But everything else fell flat, the writing during her time in London, the upper echelon these characters all lived in, it was hard for me to find anything to resonate with. There was a message somewhere in this book about love and family but it seemed lost in the grand scheme of things, at least for me.