My Phantoms

Helen Grant is a mystery to her daughter. An extrovert with few friends who has sought intimacy in the wrong places; a twice-divorced mother-of-two now living alone surrounded by her memories Helen (known to her acquaintances as Hen) has always haunted Bridget. Now Bridget is an academic in her forties. She sees Helen once a year and considers the problem to be contained. As she looks back on their tumultuous relationship - the performances and small deceptions - she tries to reckon with the cruelties inflicted on both sides. But when Helen makes it clear that she wants more it seems an old struggle will have to be replayed. From the prize-winning author of First Love My Phantoms is a bold heart-stopping portrayal of a failed familial bond which brings humour subtlety and new life to the difficult terrain of mothers and daughters. Review A writer of singular vision -Guardian About the Author GWENDOLINE RILEY was born in London in 1979 and has been hailed as one of the most significant young British writers. She is is the author ofFirst Love which was shortlisted for the Womens Prize for Literature the Dylan Thomas Prize the Gordon Burn Prize and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize;Cold Water Sick Notes Joshua Spassky and Opposed Positions. She has also been awarded a Betty Trask Award and a Somerset Maugham Award and has been shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. In 2018 theTimes Literary Supplement named her as one of the twenty best British and Irish novelists working today.