Love Forms

“[An] unforgettable heartache of a novel.”—Vogue (UK)

“Patience is the virtue of this quiet, naturalistic novel, which slowly expands around absences. . . . Though [Claire] Adam is a different sort of stylist, she produces echoes of Jean Rhys, whose disaffected London heroines cast back nostalgically to their Caribbean childhoods. . . . With little ado, Love Forms culminates in a family reunion on the island, staging reckonings that touchingly explore the ache and joy of memory.”—The Wall Street Journal

“Alive and convincing . . . The final pages, which unfold at the family’s beach house on Tobago, are as gripping as any thriller, and the ending, when it comes, feels as right as it is devastating.”—The Guardian

“A moving story of a mother’s love and longing, Love Forms pulls you deep into the landscape of memories and emotions as a mother searches for the daughter she gave up for adoption. Claire Adam’s prose is lit from within.”—Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake and Good Dirt

“Gripping and heart-rending.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Delicately written and emotionally devastating. . . . It’s a tender, tense reverie, elegantly capturing Dawn’s secret sorrow.”—Mail on Sunday

“With its rich creation of all the elements that make up a life, Love Forms achieves a sort of alchemy. . . . A book that started by tantalising the reader ultimately delivers satisfaction. Dawn, in her quest to plug the hole in her life, makes us ask what success would look like anyway. To find her daughter would be an ending: but life—this life, the only life we have—is all about continuing.”—Financial Times

“Adam shines in her characterization of the Bishop family, their fascinating dynamics, brutal honesty, and most of all, their enduring love for one another.”—Booklist

A deeply affecting story . . . Adam’s defining skill is to produce heartbreaking family stories that don’t resort to mawkishness.”—The Sunday Times

“Ambitiously layered . . . Adam pulls us into the murky tale with a deceptively unshowy style. . . . Crushingly tender, the novel explores heavy subjects without fuss.”—The Daily Mail

“An utterly arresting tale of love and grief, of the wounding and healing powers of family, of the many guises of a mother’s love.”—Sara Collins, author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton

“A compelling and tender story of what—and who—is hidden in almost every family.”—Monique Roffey, author of Passiontide

“An arresting voice that made me think of silk: Its delicate beauty belies its intrinsic strength.”—Claire Kilroy, author of Soldier, Sailor

“A compelling read, full of secrets and the complexities of family and a rich sense of place.”—Romesh Gunesekera, Booker Prize–shortlisted author of Reef

“A quietly devastating masterpiece.”—Marian Keyes, internationally bestselling author of My Favorite Mistake

“Love Forms draws the reader in with quiet authority to quite devastating effect.”—Denise deCaires Narain, senior lecturer and reader in postcolonial literatures, University of Sussex