A child psychologist struggles to come to grips with her own dark
childhood memories, in this "mesmerizing, unsettling novel" (The New
York Times).
When eight-year-old Julia was asked to be a bridesmaid at her cousin's
wedding, she was thrilled. Nothing, not even her mother's resentment of
the expensive, inconvenient traveling, could dull her excitement. But
when the day finally arrived and she took her cousin's baby on a secret
stroll around the block in his pram, her entire world shifted. She
couldn't possibly know the impact the fateful trip would have on her
future.
A lifetime later, Julia is a child psychologist working with young girls
at risk. In her sessions, Julia has a knack for determining which of her
young patients are truly troubled, and which are simply at the mercy of
the oppressive adults around them. In this quietly powerful story of the
relationship between past and current reality, Julia's own troubled
childhood begins to invade her present, and she is forced to confront
the events of that day--and discover whether the truth about her past,
and her guilt, is as devastating as she has always feared.
"The book it most reminded me of was Julian Barnes's The Sense of an
Ending. There is the same sense of psychological detective story, of
piecing together the fragments of an unresolved past."--The Guardian
"A gripping read."--The Observer