This Could Be Us

'So truthful and rewarding' Ian Rankin, author of the Inspector Rebus series

'Brave, brilliantly structured, and beautifully written' Laura Barnett, author of The Versions of Us

Kate has done the unthinkable. She'd worked hard to build a perfect life for herself, while ignoring her growing unhappiness. But when her second child was born profoundly disabled, reality hit. Unable to cope, Kate left - disappearing without a trace. She ends up in LA, with a glittering career and a new family of sorts, but the guilt is still suffocating.

Husband Andrew was left to pick up the pieces and care for their disabled daughter and angry, confused son. Bereft and broken, he leaned on Olivia, Kate's best friend. She's been by his side ever since, ignoring her own needs to meet his.

Years later, Andrew has written a memoir about his daughter learning to communicate against all odds. But when Kate's new producer husband decides he wants to make a film of it, their worlds collide once again. Now, Kate must return to the life she abandoned and reckon with what she did. The guilt and the love. The pain and the hope. In other words, family.

Following a fractured family over a period of twenty years, This Could Be Us is an extraordinarily moving story from bestselling author Claire McGowan.

'About halfway through this beautiful, expertly-stitched novel, I thought to myself, 'Every woman needs to read this book'; by the end, I thought, 'every human'. Moving, thought-provoking and profound, it's one of my favourite reads of the last few years' Louise Candlish, author of Our House

'The author's own experience of having a disabled sibling makes it an emotive read' Good Housekeeping, Book of the Month

'McGowan, an acclaimed writer of crime fiction, drew on her own family experience of caring for a disabled sibling to create a complex and ultimately forgiving story' Irish Times

'Captivating . . . A beautifully structured novel . . . As heart-warming as it is thought-provoking, the steady pace as the past slowly catches up to the present ensures you might be tempted to read just a few pages more, and more' Irish Independent