Delicate Absences

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.