Out of Focus

When Sandra, the daughter of two respectable country teachers, is sent away from home, the only thing she owns is a snapshot of herself and her sister. Alone in the world, Sandra's "sin" was to have become pregnant, and now she has been banished to a convent. And then her baby son, Peter, is taken away from her and sent far away to a new life. Devastated, Sandra vows never to forget him, desperately wanting to hold him in her arms. Her vow to him will drive her to an act of madness and to a secret she must keep buried inside, even whilst she slowly rebuilds a life for herself with her new husband and children. She never stops thinking about finding her lost son, Peter. But in the end, it's he who finds her. And he has something he needs to ask her.

Muriel Bolger is a well-known Irish journalist and award-winning travel writer. In addition to her works of fiction she has also written four books on her native city, includingDublin: City of Literature, which won the Travel Extra Travel Guide Book of the Year 2012.