When an estranged matriarch returns to the family she abandoned, four generations of women confront the secrets, betrayals, and long-buried wounds that bind them together. For readers of Elena Ferrante and Clarice Lispector, this slim, charged novel explores what we inherit and what it takes to break free.
In a modest house in Brazil, Margarida, a palm reader, has devoted her life to raising Laura, the granddaughter left behind by her mother. But when Margarida’ s own estranged mother, Filipa, arrives with her boxes and old resentments, their fragile world begins to unravel and Laura is left increasingly alone as she’ s coming of age. A vanished mother, an unnamed father, and a great-grandmother returned too late: so begins the delicate collection of absences at the heart of the novel.
Told through the shifting perspectives of its three unforgettable women, A Delicate Collection of Absences is a piercing, intimate portrait of motherhood, girlhood, and the legacies written on women’ s bodies. For readers of Samanta Schweblin and Valeria Luiselli, it is a powerful novel about what we owe our families— and the courage it takes to choose a different future.
