Description

‘An absolutely wonderful book’ – Deborah Moggach

In a London street at the turn of the twenty-first century, two neighbours start to chat over the heads of their children.

Kate Clanchy is a writer, privileged and sheltered. Antigona is a refugee from Kosovo. On instinct, Kate offers Antigona a job as a nanny, and Antigona accepts. Over the next five years and a thousand cups of coffee Antigona’s extraordinary story slowly emerges. She has escaped from a war, she has divorced a violent husband, but can she escape the harsh code she was brought up with?

At the kitchen table where anything can be said, the women discover they have everything, as well as nothing, in common.

Publisher Review

'A compelling portrait of an extraordinary woman, written with a poet's precision ... A powerfully written, refreshingly honest work' - Observer 'Educational, entertaining, moving' - Scotsman 'An exploration of being female, of cultural conditioning and of sisterhood' - New Statesman 'Her book is a tribute to their friendship. But it is also about the vulnerability of marginal women, of whom Antigona's fate is tragically emblematic' - Sunday Times 'Clanchy grapples with guilt in employing a woman to do her housework, re-evaluates her approach to motherhood and is shocked by the Malesis insistence on shame and revenge. It is Antigona's determination to escape those ancient values that threaten to rip apart her family and push her to the brink of self-destruction. Clanchy tells this heart-rending story with lucid intellectual rigour and instinctive compassion' - Daily Mail 'What Clanchy learns about herself, about her country and the way it treats those who seek protection - all of this is as painful, flawed and true as what she learns about Antigona and Albania' - Independent