LesiaDaria writer

Fiction

Forty One

‘Maybe it would be better to push down emotions, ghosts, as if they didn’t take up any room. As if the world might remain safe, so long as the lid stays shut... But the words are in her head, rebellion in her heart.

Just say the word.’

Yet can the right word – or even many words – put things right? How do you come to terms with a vast absence in the middle of life? A simple offer, a declaration of love – the words which help may not take the form of guidance at all. And the ultimate solace might come in silence, when you’ve almost given up seeking what you’re sure you’ll never find.

Raising children in London’s suburbs while husband Harry works abroad, Polish-born Eva is struggling with solitude as she searches for what life is about and where she fits in. Turning to family and friends, tested mantras, favourite books, even philosophy and religion, Eva finds more questions than answers. But insights come when she confronts greater obstacles and a tougher test of character: illness, the deaths of friends, and amidst it all, the reappearance of an old lover.