Rebecca, the central character in Helen Dunmore’s eighth novel for adults, was found as a baby in a box that once held a pair of men’s size-eleven shoes. Since she knows nothing about her parents, this story becomes the cornerstone of her identity, and the shoebox itself a talisman that she carries with her through life. But when her five-year-old daughter Ruby dies in an accident – an event that shatters the fragile edifice of her life with her husband Adam – she begins to realise that there are alternative stories out there, concerning not just other people’s hves but also her own.

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