In Emma Darragh’s debut novel, we meet three generations of women grappling with the effects of motherly abandonment. Two of these women leave their husbands and their children, though we never entirely understand why. Maryanne, worn down from raising two kids, keeping house and being the relied-upon sibling of her own family, walks out after a fight with her daughter Vivian, whose resentment is palpable. “She waited until we were at school and she snuck away without saying goodbye,” Vivian tells her sister Susan. “[She’s] meant to be an adult.”
But years later, after a string of casual jobs and sexual partners, Vivian finds herself with a demanding baby and a distant and unsupportive spouse. Eventually, she too walks out on her daughter, Evie, who finds this abandonment deeply upsetting.
