Description
‘Lola is angry. Lola is hungry. Lola spits the dummy that Rachel offers up, screams louder. A man in a suit walking past gives her a look. A shut-up-your-baby kind of look. “Oh Lola,” Rachel says, and grits her teeth to the hard slats of the bench, the painful pull of Lola’s mouth. She blinks away the watery world. Above, the currawong starts up again. That eerie, weary echoing song. Lola doesn’t look up, just works her jaw, her mouth, one hand rested on Rachel’s chest. Her fingers are as wide as they will spread, as if to say, you – all of this – everything – mine.’ Limprecht writes a very different 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
