Every Vow You Break

As the youngest de Angelis daughter, Gaby has always had to vie for attention with brainy, holier-than-thou Anna, and bohemian, beautiful Maria. Yet in her heart she cherished the hope that she was her father Enzo's favourite. On the day Gaby's first baby, Kitty, is born, Enzo suddenly dies. Before the new family have had chance to bond they are plunged into the thick of the wider clan, as Gaby's sisters devise a plan to bid their father farewell in his native Rome. But their interpretations of his wishes differ as much as their wildly conflicting advice on the fraught early days of motherhood. And in the heat and bustle of Rome itself, Gaby encounters once again the man everyone thought she would marry. Suddenly all Gaby's certainties are shaken.

1968. The year Paris takes to the streets. The year Martin Luther King loses his life for a dream. The year Eleanor Maud Portman is born.Young Elly's world is shaped by those who inhabit it: her loving but maddeningly distractible parents; a best friend who smells of chips and knows exotic words like 'slag'; an ageing fop who tapdances his way into her home, a Shirley Bassey impersonator who trails close behind; lastly, of course, a rabbit called God. In a childhood peppered with moments both ordinary and extraordinary, Elly's one constant is her brother Joe.Twenty years on, Elly and Joe are fully grown and as close as they ever were. Until, that is, one bright morning when a single, earth-shattering event threatens to destroy their bond forever. Spanning four decades and moving between suburban Essex, the wild coast of Cornwall and the streets of New York, this is a story about childhood, eccentricity, the darker side of love and sex, the pull and power of family ties, loss and life. More than anything, it's a story about love in all its forms.