A small part of me - Noëlle Harrison

Goodreads 3.28

Christina's mother walked out on her when she was just six years old. Now in her early thirties Christina has reached a desperate crossroads as a mother herself and goes on the run with her youngest, in a bid to find her mother, Greta, and sanctuary from her husband and family.

Her journey takes her across the Atlantic to America, and ultimately the west coast of Canada where she meets Luke, a Native Canadian on a mission of his own. At times challenged and inspired by her new alien environment, Christina returns to memories of her childhood, growing up on the river in Meath, Ireland, and her relationship with her enigmatic stepmother, Angeline, who was once her mother's best friend.

Against the backdrop of the open, wild and dramatic landscape of the North West Pacific, which contrasts so strongly with the enclosed spaces of her homeland, Christina begins to acknowledge the shameful reason behind her own failed motherhood and discovers a dark secret her family has never revealed.

A SMALL PART OF ME is a beautifully evocative novel about love lost, the complexity of parental love, the innocence of the love of a child, and the possibility of finding a love, a mirror for our souls, in another human being.