Make Strange by Campbell, Niamh

Description

‘DELIVERS NEW PLEASURES ON EVERY PAGE’ ANNE ENRIGHT
‘STYLISH, SHARP AND FIERCELY INTELLIGENT’ LUCY CALDWELL
‘A GLOWING, MOVING, DARING BOOK’ SEAN HEWITT

It begins on an orange afternoon, cool but ruminant, close to Halloween. Sunny, only four years old, looks up from the tub of toys in the living room and asks, ‘Mama, do you remember when I died?’

Over the strange, strained year that follows, Sunny will refer repeatedly to her previous lives – and how they ended.

Her parents Lena and Odhran, who tumbled into family life after an accidental pregnancy and a hasty registry office wedding, are left desperate for answers.

Is their child suffering from disassociation, a psychological disorder or something more? Has she absorbed their own haunted histories – Lena’s experience as an indie musician in the era of sleaze, or the shady legacy of madness in Odhran’s family? Can we ever really protect our children? What if we can’t?

From the multi-award-winning author of This Happy and We Were Young, comes a shimmering, propulsive novel about maternal concern, childhood imagination, past lives and present loves.

‘DEEPLY WISE, DEEPLY HUMANE’ KIERAN GODDARD
‘A LUMINOUS PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG FAMILY UNDER PRESSURE’ MICHELLE GALLEN
‘FULL OF CURIOUS IDEAS AND MELANCHOLIC BEAUTY’ SARA BAUME
‘SIMPLY EXQUISITE’ ANNE GRIFFIN