A midwinter tale where light battles to overcome the dark, exquisite storytelling…

This is a wonderful and moving novel. The main character, Catherine, is a damaged, vulnerable but endearing character. Forced out of her home after a devastating flood hits her town, she is left adrift in a literal and metaphorical limbo.

Catherine hopes that by helping others also affected by the flood she will somehow be able to help herself.

The other characters, her family, her colleagues at the flood crisis helpline, and her friends – Fern and Christopher – are all convincingly portrayed. They too are flawed, some likeable, some not. But even the most unlikeable are presented in a humane and non-caricatured way.

Maria in the Moon is raw, it’s shocking, but it’s also full of hope, humour and delight.

It’s exquisite storytelling and I recommend it as an ideal winter read.

Back Cover Blurb:

Long ago my beloved Nanny Eve chose my name. Then one day she stopped calling me it. I try now to remember why, but I just can’t.’

Thirty-two-year-old Catherine Hope has a great memory. But she can’t remember everything. She can’t remember her ninth year. She can’t remember when her insomnia started. And she can’t remember why everyone stopped calling her Catherine-Maria.

With a promiscuous past, and licking her wounds after a painful breakup, Catherine wonders why she resists anything approaching real love. But when she loses her home to the devastating deluge of 2007 and volunteers at Flood Crisis, a devastating memory emerges… and changes everything.

Dark, poignant and deeply moving, Maria in the Moon is an examination of the nature of memory and truth, and the defenses we build to protect ourselves, when we can no longer hide…

Genre: Contemporary fiction

Maria in the Moon is published by Orenda Books and is available as a paperback, an ebook and as an audio book.