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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk with Aviva Insurance. It's time for our book club and I'm delighted to be joined in studio by Sinead Cuddihy from the Tired Mammy book club. And we're also joined on the line by Dave Meehan, who's a member of an international book club. Dave is based in Wicklow. And we would love for book clubs around the country to get in touch with us because we
What we're going to do every month is review a book, but we want input from book clubs right around Ireland. So if you're running a book club or if you're involved in a book club, do let us know on WhatsApp 087 1400 106. And Sinead, I'm going to start with you because you're going to tell us about our pick, which was Love Forms by Clare Adam.
Take us through maybe a brief outline of the story first of all.
Yeah sure thanks Clare. So basically it is about a woman called Dawn Bishop and we start out with her age 16 getting the boat from her home in Trinidad over to Venezuela.
She's 16 years of age, she's pregnant, it's a crisis pregnancy and this is the decision that her family have made for her that she goes to a sort of similar to what we would have had here a mother and baby institution where she then gives that baby up for adoption. Then we meet her 40 years down the line. She's gone through, you know, all her studies. She's got married.
She's had two sons and she's now divorced and living in England where she's, you know, spent the last 40 years. And she's sort of trying to figure out her past, trying to find out maybe what happens to the baby that she gave away all those years ago. And obviously through, you know, modern technology and science is trying to see if that person can be traced.
So it kind of takes us back and forth again. throughout her life and between her growing up in Trinidad and her life in England and all about sort of the choices she's made and where she's ended up in her life versus what she would have expected maybe prior to that boat trip.
And you see how much it has impacted every really moment in her life. Dave, I found the book quite slow moving, but then I think you realise as you go through it, that that is almost the purpose of it, isn't it? To show you how that one decision, which really was made for Dawn back when she was 16, impacted her entire life.
Absolutely. I think that, yes, and it's the way that Adam uses memory, particularly in the book, that
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Chapter 2: What is 'Love Forms' by Claire Adam about?
And that theme runs through and we're left wondering, is this her the whole way through the book?
Yeah, and I think, you know, it's her fourth experience of this, of connecting with somebody who may or may not be her child. And, you know, so she's almost guiding this woman who she's never met and she doesn't actually know she is her daughter, but she's guiding her as if she was her child through that process as well, because she's experienced it.
So you even have her mothering this, you know, woman who may or may not be her daughter. And so I found that really interesting as well, how like, you know, she's just experiencing motherhood at all these different stages in her life and with these different people. And, you know, we're trying to find out throughout those late stages in the book whether or not that person is her daughter.
And even before they find out, they're waiting on those test results. You know, she makes a trip over to the family, have a holiday home in Tobago and they make a trip there as a family. And she's inviting this woman over. And this woman is actually based in Italy. So she, you know, and like, obviously, we know that happened, you know, over the years, people were adopted in other countries.
There was a case years ago of a set of twins who were adopted and one was adopted into the States and one was adopted into Italy. And it was only discovered when, you know, the Italian girl had a YouTube channel and the American girl's friend saw it. So, you know, there are all these stories and like, so they don't even have that language in common. They don't have a culture in common.
And, you know, so yeah, it's really interesting how they play that out.
And then the breakup of Dawn's marriage, Dave. I mean, we don't hear why that happened, but I felt, and I don't know if you felt this, Dave, when you were reading it, that that was most likely related to what she had gone through when she was 16. Did you think that?
I did think that, yes. And I think that the search sort of became a bit of an obsession with her. uh and it was to the detriment of her relationships with her her own children and her family you know um So I think those kind of things were playing into it all along.
Her life was dominated by looking for this child, this daughter that she had all those years ago. Did you take that from it as well, Sinead, about the marriage breakup?
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Chapter 3: How does Dawn's past influence her present life?
Yeah, I mean, I suppose she had to sort of escape because she talks about, you know, the women in her, you know, in her hometown or whatever, we're talking about her and she probably had to escape that.
And also there was probably an element of, you know, the education was seen as, you know, there was better opportunities for, you know, medical schools in England, perhaps, you know, there's a long history of Caribbeans, you know, moving to England for college and that sort of thing.
And, you know, I think it's worth reading. Yeah, I think it's worth reading.
There's a lot to think about in it.
Dave I want to ask you because you have been given the big responsibility now of picking our next book and you have picked a book by Will Dean tell us about it yeah it's called The Last Thing to Burn and it's it's a gripping tale it's
It's not a difficult read, but the subject matter is quite difficult. But it's worth a read. And how would you characterise it?
Is it a thriller?
It's a thriller. And it's also, well, it's basically about two girls who were trafficked from Vietnam. And into the UK and what happened to them after that.
OK, well, we won't give too much away. It's called The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean. So, Sinead, you'll be reading it. Yeah, I've actually read it previously.
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