The Young of Other Animals

Mayree is a widow whose husband's death cost her far more than a spouse. His income went with him, along with the standing she had in the community and the career she never built. In time the friendship that had kept her upright went too.

Her daughter Paula adored her father and now lives with a mother who has little left to offer. When Paula tells Mayree she was nearly assaulted, Mayree's first instinct is to doubt her. She retracts the doubt quickly, but Paula has already learned how little her word weighs at home.

The details of the attack grow firmer, and more threats follow. It becomes clear that this was no single encounter, and the danger keeps pressing on both women. That pressure pushes them into the same room, and neither can avoid the other any longer.

This is a domestic drama about a mother and a daughter, with a threat from outside driving the plot. Each woman carries things about her own past, and about the other, that she has never said aloud. The question the novel asks is whether what lies between them can still be saved. Expect an intimate, tense read focused on two people and what they owe each other.