Love Forms

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025

''A quietly devastating masterpiece''. MARIAN KEYES
''Adam is a master storyteller.'' SARA COLLINS
''Love Forms achieves a sort of alchemy.'' FINANCIAL TIMES
''Reads like a Claire Keegan short story expanded by Elizabeth Strout.'' THE TIMES

In the heart-aching new novel from the author of the award–winning Golden Child, a mother searches for the daughter she left behind a lifetime ago.

Trinidad, 1980: Dawn Bishop, aged 16, leaves her home and journeys across the sea to Venezuela. There, she gives birth to a baby girl, and leaves her with nuns to be given up for adoption.

Dawn tries to carry on with her life – a move to England, a marriage, a career, two sons, a divorce – but through it all, she still thinks of the child she had in Venezuela, and of what might have been.

Then, forty years later, a woman from an internet forum gets in touch. She says that she might be Dawn''s long-lost daughter, stirring up a complicated mix of feelings: could this be the person to give form to all the love and care a mother has left to offer?


''From the very first page, I knew I was in the hands of a master storyteller. 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. It’s an absolute triumph.''
SARA COLLINS
''Exquisitely written. A compelling and tender story of what — and who — is hidden in almost every family that feels as old as the hills and yet acutely contemporary.''
MONIQUE ROFFEY
''An arresting voice that made me think of silk: its delicate beauty belies its intrinsic strength.''
CLAIRE KILROY
''A compelling read taking us to the heart of difficult family situations and evocative secret places.''
ROMESH GUNESEKERA