A sublime psychological thriller from Polari Prize-shortlisted Charles
Lambert.
Sixteen-year-old Fiona inhabits a privileged world of English affluence,
though her relationship with her widowed mother is strained. When she
discovers an old newspaper clipping of a woman and her daughter - the
little girl a mirror image of her own younger self - she becomes
convinced she has a true family elsewhere. Four years later, with the
help of charming fraudster Patrick, Fiona drops everything to seek out
her doppelgänger in Italy.
Fiona arrives in Rome to find Maddy living hand to mouth with her
alcoholic mother. Spooked by the appearance of this strange girl wearing
her face and stalking her every move, Maddy wants nothing to do with
her. Caught in a surreal push-and-pull, the two are both fascinated and
repulsed by the oddly familiar other, each coveting a different life.
But they aren't the only ones trying to control their fate, and the two
women will soon learn that people aren't always what they seem - though
blood may still prove thicker than water.
Birthright is a dark, gripping literary thriller for fans of Ian
McEwan, Rupert Thomson and Edward St Aubyn
