"My wedding shoes were wrapped in the blue floral shirt that the man who would become my best friend, then my lover, then my husband, then my ex-husband had been wearing the night we met. I remember the touch of his hand on the small of my back, the candlelight throwing shadows over the ocean green of his eyes, and the white tremble of his throat as he swallowed red wine."

 I came here to meet Lois, but I can’t keep us separate in my mind. Lois and Bill, me and Mason, each blurring together so that when I think I am gaining a new focus on Lois I see my younger self tuck her hand into the crook of Mason’s elbow, as I always did when we were walking. I think I hear Lois laughing, and realize it is a memory of my voice. I came here to conjure Lois, but the ghosts are my own.

Charlotte Seymour, judge of the 2023 Caledonia Award, says: “This novel has such a wonderful cast of characters – an unlikely group thrown together in early twentieth-century New York. From English teenager Susannah, newly arrived off the boat at Ellis Island, to her young charge Oliver, an Irish cook, a Russian nurse and more, this is a gorgeous story about immigration, identity and friendship.”

[extract] "... After I sorted our books into separate piles, after I boxed up bedding and dishes and sent half to his new apartment, after I closed off newly emptied rooms and found homes for my cats, after all of this, I baked. Call it obsession or tradition or therapy. While the realtor sent countless emails and legal documents covered the kitchen table, while neighbors visited to ask how they could help and my daughter's school counselor left messages on my cell phone, I baked. Butter and sugar were beaten, eggs were whisked and flour was sieved. I committed myself to the alchemy of it all."​

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