It was a bit wearing trying to anticipate which mother would make an appearance on any given day…,’ writes Emilia. Grove Press An imprint of Grove Atlantic, an American independent publisher, who publish in the UK through Atlantic Books. Works by Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir & Ólafur Kolbeinn Guðmundsson, Mia Hamari, and Akseli Gallen-Kallela. Photo: Gallen-Kallela Museum

She hadn't heard her Mother speak since she was thirteen, not even in those final painful moments, but she's determined to finally find her own voice and speak about just how twisted The Community her Mother created has become in the years since her death. Carole will be appearing at events in Penarth, organised by Griffin Books on the 16th Feb and Waterstones, Cardiff on the 22nd February. It is also a very loud message about the power of words, both silent and spoken, and about the choices we make, since consequences have their own ripples and sound. Although I always wanted to write novels, it took me many years to create the time and space in my life to do it. However, throughout two decades working as a lawyer and spending time living overseas, I always made time for reading. Reading was my first love and is my most enduring love. It is impossible for me to imagine what my life would be like without books. To know that I have written a novel that people want to read and recommend, a book that will be discussed on the radio and will find a place on the shelves of libraries, just like the one I spent so much time in for the first eighteen years of my life, fills me with gratitude, a certain amount of trepidation but above all, an enormous joy.” Get involved This has a lot to say about intention, about mothers and daughters, cults (or personality) and control. I can see that it’s advertised as likely to appeal to readers of Vox, The Power, The End of Men – all books I’ve loved myself actually – and it will do, though as ever, I don’t think this is a book just for women, it makes points similar to 1984 at times about society and where we are or could be taking ourselves. It’s for anyone interested in dystopic fiction and about what happens when humans don't look outside their own spheres as to how to act. As the author explains in a note at the close: "this novel is a deliberate blending of fact and fiction, reality and unreality..." and you feel that throughout, real events you know about and fictionalised ones you just hope stay that way.On Emilia’s thirteenth birthday, her mother, Rachel Morris, sets up a tent at the bottom of the garden and stops speaking. Eight years on, in a coordinated act named the Event, Rachel and twenty-one thousand of her followers from across the world burn themselves to death. This is an exceptional book. I was intrigued by the blurb and hooked after the first chapter. Initially the protagonists mum Rachel comes across as uncaring and not empathic. We see her cruelly joking with her daughter about the identity of her biological father, gorging herself on stories of large-scale human tragedies, and demanding her family runs around after her when she retreats in silence to her tent. However, when we later hear her reasons for doing so, in the form of 2 letters to her daughter, we see an entirely different sides to her. A principled woman, who was overwhelmed by the futility of life, wanted a kinder, fairer world for her child, and subsequently made a promise of silence, that she keeps to her dying day. In the second half of the book, the action moves to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and I found this section particularly enjoyable. The cult continues and Emilia finds herself drawn into it. She goes to work for the Community in the Congo and meets a wonderful family who become an important part of her life.

This book - as the author says - is a blend of fact and fiction. In places I had to stop and think where one ended and the other started. It is an amazing, heart-rending bumpy ride which shows how one person, with one act, could change the world. There are so many truths in the book, mixed in with so much deceit. We need to keep our wits about us - and listen!Without any clear guidance now that Rachel is gone, the Community has grown into a global enterprise and powerhouse, but their original mission seems to have drastically changed. But since Rachel never spoke or wrote down her plans after her suicide, this has given the Community enough free reign to do as they wish under her name and under the guise that this is part of Rachel's grand plans for the Community. This was the story I was expecting, and it fully delivered. I’ve read several books this year that lay out the frustrations of people (usually women) who have grown up in the long cold shadow of a famous and subsequently neglectful parent — and I won’t lie, I enjoy them immensely. It’s a literary kink I didn’t know I had! And Emilia’s narrative rings so true, filled with frustration mixed with the emotional maturity of adulthood’s hindsight. Emilia is a massively sympathetic character in this portion of the narrative, and my heart really ached for her.