my child has the shape of a circle, the circle of a year: a female author returns to the place by the sea where she was with her boyfriend the year before, the boyfriend who was much younger and frightening; the circle of a week, which is the time she stays there and writes this novel; the circle of a life, where the child’s vulnerability to the harm of adults repeats itself, until someone finally reaches it and can hold it close.

my child is a novel about the circle in the sand, about the journey inward through all the circles within us that we have to pass through to get there.