abandonment
The agonies of an abandoned wife: Mrs Dickens, by Emily Howes, reviewed
Charles Dickens is cast as a cruel, coercive controller, accusing the mother of his ten children of idleness and stupidity before discarding her for a younger woman
Motherless friends: Kin, by Tayari Jones, reviewed
In the Jim Crow American south, two girls are left to make their own way in life, one more successfully than the other
Songs of murder, rape and desertion
Amy Jeffs rediscovers the disturbing beauty of traditional ballads
A redemptive fable: Night Watch, by Jayne Anne Phillips, reviewed
Set in the Appalachian Mountains, the novel centres around a family struggling to survive domestic abuse and abandonment in the aftermath of the American civil war
The man who disappeared
Walking out of one’s own life — unpredictably, perhaps even without premeditation and certainly without anything approaching a plan —…
