A review of this book in a national newspaper caught my attention; the author grew up in Edinburgh and I have been interested in her work as a poet over the years. Her poetry is quintessentially English, very poised and beautifully written, often exploring topics of femininity and motherhood. This book is the author's first venture into prose and explores her personal relationship with a Kosovan refugee to whom she impulsively offers a cleaning job at their first meeting in the street outside her home. Antigona is a victim of the 1999 Kosovan war and Clanchy recounts Antigona's own horrific experience of the war and her dramatic escape to London. Her three beautiful and wide-eyed children come with her to London but she has endured six abortions and marital …