When Rachel is pregnant with Lola, she imagines motherhood will involve pushing her sleeping infant in a pram through sun-dappled parks, suffused with the purest love she has ever felt. Then she gives birth to a colicky child in a country far from home. Feeling isolated and unsupported, she is plagued with thoughts of hurting her daughter. Leaving her baby with her husband, Rachel goes in search of her own father, who disappeared when she was six. A searingly complex portrayal of the person who is so frequently the villain in our culture: the mother who abandons her child – dark, honest and true, this is an extraordinary novel about parenthood and identity. ‘What Was Left takes us into territory that is still taboo – a mother leaving her child. This unsentimental and utterly honest account of what it is to struggle with becoming a parent is also a wonderfully absorbing read, a novel that I couldn’t wait to get back to each time I put it down.’ —Georgia Blain ‘I loved everything about it. What stands out for me is how the story acutely portrays the way people are trapped by the things they love the most, or can be suffocated by the things that also sustain them. The novel is so intelligent and passionate and full of insight into how many little cracks there are through the human heart, and yet how resilient those hearts are when tested over time. It is also a beautiful and moving account of the fierce and complex love parents have for their children' —Debra Adelaide