abandonment

Motherless friends: Kin, by Tayari Jones, reviewed

11 April 2026 9:00 am

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

13 December 2025 9:00 am

Amy Jeffs rediscovers the disturbing beauty of traditional ballads

A redemptive fable: Night Watch, by Jayne Anne Phillips, reviewed

20 January 2024 9:00 am

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

19 August 2017 9:00 am

Walking out of one’s own life — unpredictably, perhaps even without premeditation and certainly without anything approaching a plan —…