Mourning Ruby By Helen Dunmore

Another story about loss (I seem to be reading a lot of them at the moment!)  Rebecca was abandoned as a baby so her past is unknown.  She is brought up by indifferent adoptive parents.   She becomes friends with Joe, a writer, and moves in with him.  They have a complex relationship, platonic, but deeper than mere friendship.  It is through Joe that she meets and marries Adam.   Shortly after their marriage she gives birth to Ruby and the three of them settle into family life.   I read on with a sense of trepidation knowing at some point Ruby was going to die.  The story is mostly narrated by Rebecca, although there are a couple of chapters where we hear the voices of Adam and Joe.  Helen Dunmore describes the loss of Ruby in a sensitive, heart-wrenching, realistic way.  After the loss of Ruby, Rebecca’s relationship with Adam falls apart and she starts a new life working for Mr Damiano, a former circus performer who runs a chain of hotels.  Rebecca learns more about Mr Damiano, who has an interesting past.  Rebecca tries to lose herself in this job, travelling the world.   It is on one of her business trips that the plane has to make an emergency landing and Rebecca thinks she sees Ruby.   She decides she needs to leave her job, realising she hasn’t dealt with the loss of her daughter at all.  The story is told in a disjointed fashion flitting from past to present.  Part two of the novel is about the story Joe is writing.  He has sent a draft to Rebecca for her to read.  I didn’t see the point of this as it only had a tenuous link to the rest of the story.