Welcome back book lovers and take a second to get yourselves comfy for another marvelous review! This month, we dive into the stunning debut Two Daughters by Alison Edwards; a transatlantic story of two very different women whose worlds collide in a way neither could imagine.

Set between the sunny South Coast of NSW and slightly more miserable cloisters of Cambridge, Two Daughters is told through the dual narrative of Ava and Laurie who are about as similar as their respective hometowns. Ava, she of the sunburnt country, is determined to get as far away from home as possible. Partly because her aspiration to study abroad but also to avoid becoming a version of her mother; a woman mysterious to Ava after abandoning her as a baby and dying in a train accident. The only thing holding her back is her guilt over leaving her father without a 24-hour carer for his worsening condition of MS.

Laurie, she of English soil, knows Ava’s pain all too well as her mother died shortly after giving birth due to a medical complication. Unlike Ava, Laurie is more of a free spirit, intent on taking a gap year in Australia but her dad, a left-wing professor at the Cambridge cloisters, refuses to let the opportunity of a university degree pass her by. After a serious car accident, however, Laurie finds herself unable to leave home.

Of course, fate deals a hand that places both women on opposing paths, leading them closer together against the backdrop of a real-life social political upheaval. As Ava and Laurie are faced with major life decisions, their choices will inevitably affect the other.

I went in reading Two Daughters thinking that this would, perhaps, have a Parent Trap-like twist (secret siblings!) but, dear reader, it wouldn’t be the first time this reviewer’s first assumption was wrong (and I doubt it will be the last). This story is much more nuanced (no offence to The Parent Trap) and told with such wit, warmth and empathy, that each character digs under your skin and stays there. Although Ava wanders into a morally gray area which, without giving too much away, leads to some pretty questionable actions (never ever EVER take advice from a rival EVER – that’s a lesson you learn at a school talent show) the complexity of her character and backstory don’t make you write her off. And, as the end of Two Daughters cleverly and subtly unfolds, one terrible choice can still potentially lead to someone finding redemption.

Alison Edwards has delivered an incisive yet heartfelt exploration of motherhood, identity, class and what it is that makes us call a place home.