Maelstrom

Blurb

The Richardsons were the picture-perfect portrait of a British biracial family: close-knit, educated, socially and culturally engaged. There’s Diana, an award-winning novelist; Shamar, a history teacher; their daughters Sorrel, Kinna and Rose; and baby brother Midas, trailing in their wake.

But that image was shattered the day that youngest daughter, Rose, is hurt and her future changed forever in a racially motivated, misogynistic attack as Kinna stood by, paralysed, watching it happen.

Three and a half years on and it’s Rose’s birthday, but Kinna hasn’t seen her family in months, and she doesn’t feel like celebrating. Possessed by feelings of guilt, regret and self-hatred she can’t seem to shed, Kinna can’t bear to be around the three siblings from whom she used to be inseparable.

The day of Rose’s looming celebration summons a reckoning. There are revelations that cannot stay hidden, threatening to unmoor the family once more and offering the possibility, delicate and fleeting, of drawing Kinna home again.