LOST CHILD A compelling novel of love, heartbreak and family

What happens when you take an orphaned child into your new family?
May has just started a new life with Nathan and his son from his first marriage. May meets a recently orphaned little girl, Elva, at the children’s home where May teaches. She develops a close relationship with Elva, and together with her husband, she draws the child into their loving family circle. The bereaved girl blossoms in the easy affection of the new family.

But there are clouds on the horizon: Nathan’s ex-wife is hell-bent on disrupting the situation and complex ties of obligation and guilt threaten to destroy May’s job, marriage, and everyone she loves.

This is a gripping, sometimes harrowing novel telling the story of a blended family fighting for survival. There may be no perfect happy endings, but with love there is always hope for the future.

Great for people who like Hilary Boyd, Jodi Picoult, Anne Enright, or Elena Ferrante

Also by Gretta Mulrooney:
OUT OF THE BLUE: Will going back to a past love end up destroying everything?
THE LADY VANISHED: A brilliantly plotted tale of deceit and detection.

PRAISE FOR GRETTA MULROONEY'S PREVIOUS BOOKS:

ARABY

'Mulrooney has a real gift for dialogue, the words and phrases ring true and make her characters wonderfully real… A tenderly funny and genuinely moving piece. I loved it.’ Fiona Morrow, Time Out

‘A beautifully observed study of reconciliation, Araby makes astute points about conflict and shifting values between generations.’ James Eve, The Times

‘I loved it. It’s such a sweet story, without being in the least sentimental. There are moments when the reader is absolutely there, so acute is this novelist’s ear and eye.’
Margaret Forster

MARBLE HEART

'All of this is wickedly, sharply amusing. But when they really join the party with an act of meaningless terror, Mulrooney shows how constructive and contagious that situation was. And as Nina slowly takes the sweet-natured Joan as her final victim, Marble Heart proves itself to be an excellent lesson in the difference between cleverness and wisdom.' The Times

'Mulrooney slows the pace leading to the shocking denouement by deftly layering each chapter with different character's voices. She shows herself to be an acute observer of all the intricacies that comprise female friendship. By making her readers wait, she not only heightens the gripping tension of her story but positions us with Joan and Nina, who are also waiting - Joan patiently [so she] may be married; Nina fearfully, for her secret crime to be brought into the open.' Time Out