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Adult Onset by Ann-Marie Macdonald (first published in 2015 by Sceptre)
Mary-Rose McKinnon has always felt that her chronic arm pain is somehow linked to parts of her childhood she has trouble remembering clearly.
As she struggles with the role of stay-at-home mom to her children, she fears that these hidden troubles might overwhelm her.
With her partner, Hilary, away for long periods for work, every day seems to be a struggle not to lose her temper with the mundane irritations that make up her child-care responsibilities.
The one person she can’t turn to is her mother, Dolly. Charming, quirky and loved by everyone she meets, Dolly’s sad history of miscarriages and stillborn babies is buried deep, but does it offer clues to Mary-Rose’s own unsettled mental state?
Hilary tries to make her partner face the truth, but her distracted support only adds to Mary-Rose’s confusion.
What seems at first to be a humorous, well-observed take on family life and motherhood takes a darker and more intriguing turn as fragments of memory and unspoken truths begin to surface.
The imperfect glue that holds families together starts to become unstuck, a process that author Ann-Marie Macdonald makes powerful and real through her competent story-telling.
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