Someone Not Really Her Mother

"A lovely, moving book--elegant in its economy, delicately powerful."

As Hannah Pearl’s memories of her 1940 escape to England from war-torn France come to the foreground of her consciousness, her memory of her more recent American life, including her relationships with her daughter and granddaughters, is almost erased. Her daughter, Miranda, attempts to bring her mother into the present and the daily activities of family life, yet finds herself instead pulled into Hannah’s unresolved past. Miranda’s daughters confront the shadows of history in their own ways. Fiona, content with her life as a new mother, tries to ignore the ghostly presence of Hannah’s family who perished in the war, while Ida clings to Hannah’s revelations as if they form a lifeline. Facing the mystery of Hannah’s unspoken memories, each woman must ask how well anyone can know the inner life of another person.