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Catriona Lydgate has a life beyond the dreams of her haunted childhood. Now married to a successful husband, Richard, with a beloved stepdaughter and a young child of her own, she can let her terrible past fade away. No longer the abandoned child, she is now a good mother and wife. A festive pre-Christmas party at her home, complete with neighborhood carolers, is suddenly tinged with alarm as she receives a cheerful postcard out of the blue from her long-lost mother now living in Berlin. Catriona tosses the postcard, ignoring her motherıs gentle hint to telephone her. She's more concerned with her eight-year-old, Daisy, whose case of ³flu² wonıt go away and the child cannot swallow the simplest food. Taking Daisy to the doctor does no good, so she demands to see a specialist who claims that the mother is being overprotective and that the child will get better if she ³takes her medicine,² never mind that she canıt keep it down. Catriona objects to his cavalier diagnosis, but the specialist sees her defensiveness in another light. He assumes Catriona has an ulterior motive in seeking medical attention, and his case notes accuse her of possibly harming her own child (³Munchhausen syndrome by proxy²). Soon, based on his ³specialist² report, the wheels of the British health care system begin to turn into a rolling nightmare of accusations and assumptions that threaten Catrionaıs right to keep her own child. Daisy continues worsening, and even her father begins to pull away from Catriona believing she's hurting the child with a selfish purpose. And the postcards from Berlin continue. They arrive at intervals, with continued requests to get in touch, to threats of her motherıs imminent demise. All this puts Catrionaıs mind into a tailspin where she will do anything to save her daughter and to avoid her mother, yet all her efforts work against her. No one will listen. Yet, is ignoring the mother who abandoned her and clinging to young Daisy only a desperate attempt to avoid being just like her mother? Is she overcompensating, or does she simply love her daughter above all else? With all the weight of the world pressing her down, Catriona decides to take a big leap of chance to solve her daughterıs illness and put her past to rest once and for all. Her courage brings about a remarkable resolution. This novel is a beautifully written story of ³mother love² that shows what a person is up against when ³the system² chooses to ignore the obvious to control its own agenda. Catrionaıs determination never wavers and we, the readers, are usually on her side, yet the doubts creep in. We must keep turning the pages until we know the truth. This is a fascinating read and highly recommended.
Reviewed by Tess Allegra, September 2003
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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