Paper Chains

The lives of two women intersect in Moriarty's heart-tugging story (following Those Other Women) of confronting questionable choices. Twenty-eight-year-old Australian Hannah Privitelli has moved to London and is working at a museum gift shop. She believes she has made a cruel decision that has destroyed her life, and aside from work, she spends her only day off jogging, trying to escape her own guilt. India Calder, a woman about Hannah's age, shows up at the gift shop one day and becomes determined to help Hannah. It's what India does; when she senses someone is troubled, she helps them and then moves on. Hannah is resistant, but India is persistent, pointing out that they're both Australians temporarily living in London, and a friendship develops. The question becomes not whether one can help the other, but whether both can find a way to heal the secret each is hiding. It's difficult to decide which of the two vibrantly described personalities is more impulsive or more secretive. Dynamic prose makes the pages turn and then subsequently fly by when twists arise. Moriarty's novel is both fast-paced and immersive.