This is the story of two women, Nula and Maggie, joined by old family history and love for the same little boy.
Nula, struggling with her new baby and feeling alone in her marriage, employs her cousin Maggie as a nanny when she returns to work. But it's not long before Nula finds herself theatened by Maggie's close bond with her son, Samuel.
Nula's outwardly perfect house crackles with unspoken jealousies and rivalry until Maggie's intense love for Samuel tips into obsession and she decides her only option is to abduct the child. As Maggie makes her desperate bid for safety, the women's shared past of trauma and loss comes to the fore once more.
WINNER OF THE JERWOOD FICTION UNCOVERED PRIZE 2015.
Bethan Roberts was born in Oxford and grew up in nearby Abingdon. Her first novelThe Poolswon a Jerwood/Arvon Young Writers' Award. Her second novelThe Good Plain Cook, published in 2008, was serialized on BBC Radio 4'sBook at Bedtimeand was chosen as one ofTime Out's books of the year. Her third novel,My Policeman, was picked as the 'City Reads' book for Brighton. Her most recent novel isMother Island, winner of a Jerwood/Fiction Uncovered Prize 2015. Bethan lives in Brighton with her family.
www.bethanrobertswriter.com
A taut, powerful novel about a nanny who abducts the young child she looks after>
