Mild reading creases on spine and a small crease to top left hand corner of back cover. A young woman leaves a sealed box for her baby daughter. Years later, as a young woman herself, the daughter Catherine finds the mysterious box, addressed to her, full of unexplained, even weird objects. And she finally starts to unpack, literally and metaphorically, the story of a woman whom she never knew but who has cast a long shadow over her life. Having a "perfect", beautiful, talented and dead mother is a heavy burden to carry. But now she sets off on the trail of this madonna - a trail which takes her from the Lake District to the Caribbean - trying to unravel the truth about a woman who turns out to be more complex, wilder and more surprising than her family have painted her. And Catherine, edgy, awkward and self-centred, has to face up, unwillingly, to truths about herself and her own relationships.

Fiction