Continuing the themes of her first novel, The Baby Trail, our heroine, Emma, attempts to tackle the minefields of adoption. I had no idea it was quite such hard work applying for a baby. Besides learning all about the red tape, we have large chunks of family shenanigans, the big Irish sort! I bet the author comes from such a family herself, she’s brilliant at capturing it all, a great read.
After two years of being deafened by the TICKTOCK of her biological clock and tormented by Mother Nature's refusal to grant her a baby, Emma Hamilton decides to go for the instant solution: finding a Russian baby in need of a home. But Emma hasn't reckoned on the route to adoption being so complicated. Between proving that she's fit to be a mother (by inventing an unblemished past and discovering an unsuspected talent for housekeeping), driving her long-suffering husband insane with madcap schemes to make them the perfect would-be parents (a few Russian verbs a night and they'll be fluent in no time), and tripping over red tape every step of the way (who knew social workers could be so terrifying?) Emma finds out that adoption is far from the easy option - and that perfection has very little to do with finding the perfect match.
Growing up, Sinead Moriarty was inspired by watching her mother, an author of children's books, writing at the kitchen table. Her childhood dream was to write a novel. It was at the age of thirty, while working as a journalist in London, that she began to write creatively in her spare time - after work, at lunch times ... and, truth be told, during work hours. Her first novel, The Baby Trail, a bitter-sweet story of a couple struggling to have a baby (inspired by her own early difficulties conceiving) was published in 2004 and has been translated into twenty languages. Sinéad Moriarty's novels have sold over half a million copies in Ireland and the UK. She has won over readers and critics telling stories that are funny, humane, moving and relevant to modern women. She lives in her native Dublin with her husband and their three children.