Love Forms - by Claire Adam (Hardcover)

About the Book

"For much of her life, Dawn has felt as if something had been missing. Now, at the age of fifty-eight, with a divorce behind her and her two grown-up sons busy with their own lives, she should be trying to settle into a new future for herself. But she keeps returning to the past and to the secret she's kept all these years. At just sixteen, Dawn found herself pregnant, and-as was common in Trinidad back then-her parents sent her away to have the baby and give her up for adoption. More than forty years later, Dawn yearns to reconnect with her lost daughter. But tracking down her child is not as easy as she had thought. It's an emotional journey that leads Dawn to retrace her steps back home and to question not only that fateful decision she'd made as a teenager but every turn in the road of her life since. Love Forms is a powerfully moving story of a woman in search of herself-a novel that rings with heartfelt empathy through the passages of a mother's life, depicting the enduring bonds of love, family, and home"--

Book Synopsis

A heart-stirring novel about a mother's love, in all its forms, as a woman searches for the daughter she gave up for adoption, from the prize-winning author of Golden Child

"A beautiful story full of vibrance and heart . . . explores what it means to be a woman and what it means to love."--Amanda Peters, author of The Berry Pickers

For much of her life, Dawn has felt as if something is missing. Now, at the age of fifty-eight, with a divorce behind her and her two grown-up sons busy with their own lives, she should be trying to settle into a new future for herself. But she keeps returning to the past and to the secret she's kept all these years. At just sixteen, Dawn found herself pregnant, and--as was common in Trinidad back then--her parents sent her away to have the baby and give her up for adoption.

More than forty years later, Dawn yearns to reconnect with her lost daughter. But tracking down her child is not as easy as she had thought. It's an emotional journey that leads Dawn to retrace her steps--from Trinidad to Venezuela and then to London--and to question not only that fateful decision she'd made as a teenager but every turn in the road of her life since.

Love Forms is a powerfully moving story of a woman in search of herself--a novel that rings with heartfelt empathy through the passages of a mother's life, depicting the enduring bonds of love, family, and home.

Review Quotes

"A moving story of a mother's love and longing, Love Forms pulls you deep into the landscape of memories and emotions as a mother searches for the daughter she gave up for adoption. Claire Adam's prose is lit from within."--Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake and Good Dirt

"From the very first page, I knew I was in the hands of a master storyteller. . . . An utterly arresting tale of love and grief, of the wounding and healing powers of family, of the many guises of a mother's love . . . It's an absolute triumph."--Sara Collins, author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton

"An exquisitely written and uniquely Caribbean novel about the hard edges of social pressure and the soft longing of mother love . . . I was swept away from page one to the kicker ending. . . . A compelling and tender story of what--and who--is hidden in almost every family . . . Read this book and give it to your friends."--Monique Roffey, author of Passiontide

"An arresting voice that made me think of silk: Its delicate beauty belies its intrinsic strength."--Claire Kilroy, author of Soldier, Sailor

"A compelling read, full of secrets and the complexities of family and a rich sense of place."--Romesh Gunesekera, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Reef

"A quietly devastating masterpiece . . . I can't remember the last time a book has gripped and moved me in this way. I rarely cry, but I howled. This is a standout novel."--Marian Keyes, internationally bestselling author of My Favorite Mistake

"A beautiful story full of vibrance and heart . . . Love Forms explores what it means to be a woman and what it means to love. Moving between London and Trinidad and Tobago, Claire Adam explores the complexities of family and place, what it means to be home, and the sacrifices we make for the people we love."--Amanda Peters, bestselling author of The Berry Pickers

"Love Forms draws the reader in with quiet authority to quite devastating effect. Claire Adam is attuned to the nuanced forms that love takes, the awful things that parents do in its name, and the complicated ways that love endures--despite everything."--Denise deCaires Narain, senior lecturer and reader in postcolonial literatures, University of Sussex

About the Author

Claire Adam's debut novel, Golden Child, was published by Sarah Jessica Parker's SJP for Hogarth. It was listed as one of the BBC's "100 Novels That Shaped Our World" and was awarded the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, the Desmond Elliott Prize, the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award, and the McKitterick Prize. She was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago. She studied physics at Brown University and later received an MA in creative writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. Adam lives in London.