Sicily, 1977. Ten-year-old Lily and family arrive for their annual summer holiday in Sicily. Adopted as a toddler, Lily's childhood has been idyllic. But a chance encounter with a local woman on the beach changes everything... 10 years later... Ever since that fateful summer Lily's picture-perfect life, and that of her family, has been in turmoil. The secrets of the baking hot shores of Sicily are calling her back, and Lily knows that the answers she has been so desperately seeking can only be found if she returns to her beloved island once more...
"A delightful holiday read" DAILY MAIL
In Ireland, the past never dies...
Long ago, on a windswept Irish beach, a young father died saving the life of another man's child. Thirty years later, his widow, Julia, decides to return to this wild corner of Ireland to lay the past to rest. Her journey sparks others: her daughter Bel, an artist, joins her mother in Ireland, while son Matt and daughter-in-law Rachel, at home in Liverpool, embark on some soul-searching of their own. As the threads of past and present intertwine, Julia's family confront long-buried feelings of guilt, anger, fear and desire. Only then can they allow the crashing waves of the beach at Doonshean to bond them together once again.
Gina's life is good. She loves her adopted home in Italy and she is passionate about her work as a photographer. She's all wrapped up in her latest artistic project, shots of the young men who arrive in Italy as refugees, destitute and vulnerable. One day, Sasha, a lonely British teenager at summer school, crosses Gina's path. Sasha's innocent romance creates complications neither of them could have imagined, leading Gina to wonder, can she come to terms with her past?
In her early years, Allie and her bohemian mother Helena were always on the move. Now Helena keeps people at arm's length: relationships never last and old friends have slipped away. But when Allie inherits Helena's childhood home, she begins to see snatches of the tormented past her mother has been running from... Determined to find out what keeps driving her mother away from people, Allie follows a lead to the beautiful island of Ischia.
