Water, sand, hills, sky: the painter was out at sea, looking towards the shore. Impossible to say whether he was coming in or going out.

When Sylvie, a single mother yearning for a creative spark, meets Michael, a renowned painter, she feels something she hasn't felt in years. Impulsively she decides to uproot her life and move to Isaiah, an artists' colony, with her teenage daughter Alice.

To Sylvie, Isaiah seems to offer a second chance at the things she's sacrificed—freedom, love and art—but her relationship with Michael begins to affect the closeness she once had with her daughter. Without her mother's knowledge, Alice engages in an act of teenage defiance that will shape both their lives.
Years later, Alice, a PhD student, is sought out by Caroline, an art historian researching Michael for a retrospective of his work. As their conversations tease out long-buried memories, Alice grapples with her past and Caroline's hidden agenda.

Sometimes it's all a matter of perspective.


‘Immediately gripping and thrillingly nuanced, this is a novel you'll devour in a rush and then savour for a long, long time.' DIANA REID, bestselling author of Love & Virtue and Signs of Damage

‘Powerful and mesmerising, a brilliant portrait of the ways we are consumed by motherhood, art and the yearning for self.' SHANKARI CHANDRAN, Miles Franklin award-winning author of Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens and Safe Haven

‘A stunning work of fiction, at once bold and intricately woven. An enthralling read.' ELIZA HENRY-JONES, author of Salt and Skin

‘A beautiful, adventurous novel about complicated and enduring love. A smart, stunning portrait of parenthood and mother-daughter bonds. Horton's writing is captivating, lush, and incredibly moving.' LAURA ELVERY, author of Trick of the Light and Ordinary Matter

'A nuanced dissection of art, morality and motherhood. Joanna Horton holds these principles to the light and shakes loose their unspeakable truths' ADRIANE HOWELL, author of Hydra