'There's a trick to time. You can make it expand or you can make it contract. Make it shorter or make it longer . . .'

Some moments you want to last forever. Some moments shape a life.

For Mona, it's the joy of playing on a Wexford beach as a young girl, next to her family's cottage overlooking the Irish sea. The thrill of moving to Birmingham with a new job and a room of her own in a busy boarding-house. Meeting the love of her life; a whirlwind marriage; a sudden, tragic loss.

But now, decades later, Mona is determined to find happiness before it's too late. She knows that every moment is precious. But can we ever let go of the past that shaped us?

'Devastatingly emotional. De Waal's storytelling gives us the poetry and sorrow of life itself'Financial Times

'Weaving tragedy and joy, big themes and the minutiae of life, this is a love story to take on the classics'Emerald Street

'An emotionally sure-handed novel exploring harrowing terrain with deft sensitivity'Sunday Times