Book description
'Not just a heart-stopping story, but one that is essential for our
times.' Anne Enright, author of The Gathering Kate Clanchy meets a
Kosovan refugee in the street as their children play. They immediately
connect and on instinct, Kate offers Antigona a job as her nanny. Over
five years of working together, an intense friendship develops and their
two utterly divergent stories begin to emerge -one, a London-based,
middle-class, highly educated writer, the other, a refugee with almost
no education who has escaped with her three children from a terrible
war, from a violent husband and from the rural highlands of Kosovo,
where she lived under an almost medieval code of conduct. As they learn
about each other's lives their views on almost everything begin to shift
and their friendships transform them both for the better. 'Clanchy's
portrait of Antigona is wonderfully vivid, as are her reflections on her
own complex feelings. A powerfully written, refreshingly honest work.'
Observer
Kate Clanchy was born and grew up in Scotland but now lives in
England. She is a popular poet: her collections, Slattern, Samarkand
and Newborn have brought her many literary awards and an unusually
wide audience. She has also written extensively for Radio 4 and
reviews and writes comment for the Guardian.
