The way that Anna writes is so brilliantly simple and clever, she captures not only the dialogue between several different types of couples but that of a group of women so succinctly that you can see all the characters vividly. And whilst Catherine's story is a lynchpin of the story of how it can be to have a baby when you step outside the rigid rules of a patriarchal society leaving the woman tarnished, and the man spotlessly clean, the process of patriarchal bargaining takes place with the nuns and the girls' mothers as much as it does in the way that the men uphold their virtue. We also meet Catherine in 1976, who as a fifteen year old girl meets local heartthrob and rich kid Justin, falls madly in love and gets pregnant. Pregnant at 15 in Ireland 1976? I think we know where this is going. Natalie and her partner Linda want a baby, but they really want it to have their DNA. Linda’s twin brother Paul is willing to be the sperm donor, but Natalie has her doubts – he’s not exactly the candidate she’d choose if she was paging through a catalogue of options!

He warns her: she won' t be happy. The severe judgements are his: his music is not perfect (his severe judgement: it’s just bubblegum), she’s not perfect either (so she will be judged, too)

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Vadik took her hand in his. Her fingers were thin and startlingly warm. “More English poetry in Russian?” he asked. He" and "Him" (never mind the case) are aspects of god; like the hindu atman and brahma. And I like to read Leonard as confused as to whether he is atman or brahma; and therefore either or both Leonard and god could be offering the "crumbs".

Who will have the happy ever after dream and who will settle for the dream never happening? I raced though it in 2 days to find out. I particularly loved the flitting between current day and the character Catherine's story from the past and was eager to see how the 2 would come together. Wrap yourself up in a duvet and start reading. You won't be disappointed.' It's such a gorgeous examination of grief while also being honest, hilarious and totally relatable. I LOVED this book!' Fionnuala Kearney, author of The Book of Love She asked him where he was staying, and the answer seemed to horrify her. “Staten Island?” she said. “But it’s so late! How are you going to get there?” And then she cleared her throat and offered to let him stay at her place. Vadik squeezed her hand even tighter. In 2010, Caroline, Nancy, Janet and Ronnie, things are very different. Caroline and husband Dave have agreed the toll of IVF is too much and the last attempt was the very last one. Except Caroline is still holding out for the tiniest miracle that Dave will change his mind... Weaving two seamless narratives, from the not so distant past and the present, in 2010, this is a deeply moving and well constructed meditation on the internal, and external, expectations of motherhood.Anna’s first children’s book the ‘Fearless Five’ came out May 2019. Her next fiction novel ‘Below The Big Blue Sky,’ is on shelves in UK and IRE in April 2020 and she is currently working on her ninth commercial fiction title. I think you simply invented your great love for Rachel to justify your failures with other women,” Sergey said.

The I here is 'up there'(reaching for the sky), and the You is waiting below, making a lot of noise with her drum and bugle, she's not playing a soft flute, no she tries to give him a wake-up call! Vica led him on a tour of the house. All Vadik noticed was that the furniture was brown and the walls were painted yellow. “We’re giving you this exercise bike,” Vica said, pointing to a bulky apparatus in the corner of the guest room. “It’s like new. I gave it to Sergey for his birthday, but he seems to hate it.” Then Vica took him to meet Eric, a small, sulky, chubby six-year-old version of Sergey. He was sitting on the floor of his tiny bedroom with a Game Boy in his hands. His fingers pressed the buttons with such intensity it was as if his life depended on it. “Hi,” Vadik said. It hadn’t occurred to him to bring Eric a gift—a toy or something—and now he felt awkward. He had no idea how to talk to a child. “So, Eric,” he said, “what do you like to do?” But in some songs f.e. 'You know who I am' I can only read that as God. And in 'The miracle' the You for me is clearly exclusively a woman, but I approach it from personal experience: I know that kind of man and I have a soft spot for them. My ex-partner was very much like that: sensitive and interesting but hard to have a relationship with, or like LC says "it's hard to hold the hand of of anyone who is reaching for the sky to surrender". (Stranger song) There is no subway here. The ferry is far away. I’ll take you to the express bus. It goes straight into midtown.” Catherine's story really affected me. I was raised Catholic myself, and the sins of the Catholic Church are never far from my mind, but to read such raw emotions surrounding the pain and abuse done 'in the name of religion' makes me so incredibly sad. I won't deny that I shed a few tears.That Catherine not only stands up for herself and demands to keep her baby is an astonishing feat of will power, she is adamant that her child will not be sold or given away. Her prayers to the saint of lost souls, St Jude, are for such a small miracle, to be allowed to keep her child. But the harsh reality of being a single parent in late 70's/early 80's Ireland are far from an attainable. I urge you to read this book. Have a box of tissues nearby, but devour it and then pass it on. It's a book that deserves to be read. Forget about Rachel!” Vica insisted. “There is a good chance that she would have turned out to be anorexic, or bipolar, or just plain boring!” They were probably right. And yet Vadik couldn’t stop longing for Rachel. He could barely remember what she looked like anymore, but in the compact reality of his memories Rachel remained perfect. There were times when Vadik tried to banish those memories, because they were painful. And there were times when he felt numb, and would desperately try to conjure up thoughts of Rachel, because pain was better than numbness. Once, in Avenel, as he sat perched on his exercise bike, in his empty white room, pushing and pushing on those dusty pedals, he said Rachel’s name out loud and felt nothing. Or, rather, he felt a palpable nothing, both weightless and glutinous. He felt as if he were about to simultaneously float away and drown. He had never felt worse. The two timelines do eventually merge, as you know they will, and whether you see it all fall into place before that, or as it happens, you’re sure to be enveloped by a sense of uplifting warmth and that feeling that you’ve just been witness to something extremely special and unique, which is what this book is.