Lucy Caldwell

From Belfast to London and back again the ten stories that comprise Caldwell's first collection explore the many facets of growing up - the pain and the heartache, the tenderness and the joy, the fleeting and the formative - or 'the drunkenness of things being various'. This book features stories of longing and belonging, they culminate with the heart-wrenching and unforgettable title story.

A curious bear observes how leaves change throughout the seasons.

The back yard of Saoirse and Daisy's house can be a perilous place: boys from down the street leave unwelcome 'presents' at the gate, the girls' father comes home late with a swollen jaw, and they have to rush indoors and shut the windows tight when marchers pass, even on the hottest day of the year. And while there is respite to be had at Antonini's Ice Cream Parlour and in their mother's bedtime stories, the walls of the house cannot protect this family for ever, and when a tragedy occurs at its heart the fragile ties that bind them together begin to break apart. Ten years later in rural Ireland, Saoirse is building a new life for herself. She is dreaming again: of her prom night, of her future, and of the wayward but handsome Johnny Mahon. But as she learns to her cost, she has still not fully escaped the fallout of that unforgettable Belfast summer a decade before. As her past, present and future become inextricably tangled, Saoirse is forced to confront her family's demons, if she is ever to begin a new life of her own. Where They Were Missed is a story of domestic tragedy and the loneliness of suffering. In a world where everyday violence taps on the surface of people's lives, Lucy Caldwell evokes the pain of an incomprehensible loss, as she charts a young girl's search for forgiveness.