Search results for ""author helen stancey""

Mary has a secret that she mustn't tell. But in a care home, with her mind wandering, she's starting to slip up. Clearing out her grandmother's old room, Lucy finds something hidden that wasn't supposed to be found - a locket sheltering a shameful family secret. She can't tell her mother. Not with their father gone, one brother absent and another acting up. Her mother was struggling with her mental health just a few years ago. Lucy will have to make sense of it all herself. In a beautifully told drama of family secrets, Helen Stancey once again picks through the everyday of life to uncover poetry, pain and ultimately love.

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Helen Stancey's debut collection of short stories more than rivals her well-received novels, Words and Common Ground. The Madonna of the Pool is a fantastic collection of short stories which explore the triumphs, compromises and quiet disappointments of everyday life. Drawing on a wide array of characters, Helen Stancey shows how small events, insignificant to some, can resonate deeply in the lives of others. Richly poetic, deeply moving and entirely engaging, these short stories demonstrate an exquisite understanding of human adaptation, endurance and, most of all, optimism.

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