The Left-Behind Child 9781784746117 Hardback

A must-read Antes sensuous description of life counts the true cost to one family of a mother having to work abroad as a nurse. Theres pain for everybody, but this is written with such joy that the overall effect is exhilarating GWYNETH LEWIS’A beautiful, hypnotic novel positively capacious in its depth, its texture, and its heart’CLAIRE LOMBARDO’Captures brilliantly the complexity of a teenage girl’s feelings for her absent mother’ RACHEL JOYCEA mother forced to leave her family. A daughter forced to reckon with what is left behind.Lipa, Philippines, 2001. Neneng is 11 when her mother, Rosa, leaves to work as a nurse overseas: abandoning Neneng to care for a distant father, unsettled relatives and rebellious siblings. Their home shatters, and Neneng finds herself facing womanhood alone. From that point on, she vows never to become a nurse, and never to trust her mother again.But Neneng is more like the strong-minded Rosa than she realises. As Neneng fights to survive and build a new life, the darknesses in the familys past come to light, and the reasons why Rosa needed to leave become clearer. When a twist of fate brings a new mother figure into her orbit, Neneng will come to understand why the profession of nursing matters so deeply to Rosa and when crisis strikes what care means to Neneng.Praise for Romalyn Ante:’Ante is … unparalleled in her image-making’ Fiona Benson’Spellbinding’ Observer’Powerful and hopeful … Filled with heart and beauty’ Cecile Pin