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Love Forms

Claire Adam

In the heart-aching new novel from the author of the award-winning Golden Child, a mother searches for the daughter she left behind a lifetime ago.

Format
Ebook
ISBN
9780571339570
Date Published
17.06.2025
Delivery
All orders are sent via Royal Mail and are tracked: choose from standard or premium delivery.

Summary

‘Exquisitely written. A compelling and tender story of what—and who—is hidden in almost every family that feels as old as the hills and yet acutely contemporary.’ MONIQUE ROFFEY
‘A story in which love and pain co-exist, connect, even merge. From the first page to the last, we touch a real human being living a real human life.’ JOANNA GLEN
‘A compelling read taking us to the heart of difficult family situations and evocative secret places.’ ROMESH GUNESEKERA
‘An arresting voice that made me think of silk: its delicate beauty belies its intrinsic strength.’ CLAIRE KILROY

In the heart-aching new novel from the author of the award–winning Golden Child, a mother searches for the daughter she left behind a lifetime ago.

Trinidad, 1980: Dawn Bishop, aged 16, leaves her home and journeys across the sea to Venezuela. There, she gives birth to a baby girl, and leaves her with nuns to be given up for adoption.

Dawn tries to carry on with her life – a move to England, a marriage, a career, two sons, a divorce – but through it all, she still thinks of the child she had in Venezuela, and of what might have been.

Then, forty years later, a woman from an internet forum gets in touch. She says that she might be Dawn’s long-lost daughter, stirring up a complicated mix of feelings: could this be the person to give form to all the love and care a mother has left to give?

Critic Reviews

Love Forms is an exquisitely written and uniquely Caribbean novel about the hard edges of social pressure and the soft longing of mother love. I was swept way from page one to the kicker ending. A story of what - and who - is hidden in almost every family, Adam writes a compelling and tender narrative which feels as old as the hills and yet acutely contemporary. It felt true and pure and very feminine. Read this book and give it to your friends.

Monique Roffey, author of the The Mermaid of Black Conch
Critic Reviews

An arresting voice that made me think of silk: its delicate beauty belies its intrinsic strength.

Claire Kilroy, author of Soldier Sailor
Critic Reviews

A compelling read taking us to the heart of difficult family situations and evocative secret places.

Romesh Gunesekera, author of Reef
Critic Reviews

I was moved and mesmerised by this beautifully crafted novel. Claire Adam draws us effortlessly into the unsettling heart of Dawn Bishop’s story, a story in which love and pain co-exist, connect, even merge. From the first page to the last, we touch a real human being living a real human life.

Joanna Glen
Critic Reviews

A devastating story about family secrets, and what it truly means to be a mother. Intimate, poignant, and beautifully written, this unforgettable novel will stay with me for a long time.

Amanda Smyth

ClaireAdam

Claire Adam was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago. She was educated in the US and now lives in London with her husband and two children. Her first novel Golden Child won multiple prizes and was named one of the BBC’s ‘100 Novels that Shaped the World’.

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ClaireAdam

Claire Adam