About this ebook
Twenty years after Leo Quick was abandoned by his wife and left to raise their two small children, he receives a phone call bringing explosive news. Fleur, his wife, who went Africa in the fervour of Live Aid, never to be seen or heard from again, has died in Kenya. She has left behind a daughter, Star, a third child to whom Leo is father, though he knew nothing of her existence till now.
In his wife's absence, Leo has found new love with Denise, and together they have raised his two children. But the consequences of their childhood abandonment are playing out. Kester, his son, has a cocaine habit that is spiraling out of control, and Silvia is haunted by a sense of loneliness and struggling with her own demons.
With Star's arrival, long-buried hurts resurface as each of the Quicks confront the legacy of Fleur's desertion. A story of the secrets we keep and the consequences of acting upon our desires, The Absent Wife is a darkly witty, knowing and gripping exploration of a modern family in crisis.
Twenty years after Leo Quick was abandoned by his wife and left to raise their two small children, he receives a phone call bringing explosive news. Fleur, his wife, who went Africa in the fervour of Live Aid, never to be seen or heard from again, has died in Kenya. She has left behind a daughter...
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About the author
Karen Gillece was born in Dublin in 1974. She studied Law at University College Dublin and worked for several years in the telecommunications industry before turning to writing full-time. She was shortlisted for the Hennessy New Writing Award in 2001 and her short stories have been widely published in literary journals and magazines. Her first novel Seven Nights in Zaragoza was published to widespread acclaim as was her second offering Longshore Drift, which was followed by My Glass Heart. The Absent Wife is Karen's third novel.
Karen Gillece was born in Dublin in 1974. She studied Law at University College Dublin and worked for several years in the telecommunications industry before turning to writing full-time. She was shortlisted for the Hennessy New Writing Award in 2001 and her short stories have been widely publish...
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