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I'm delighted to welcome Louise Persaud to Bedside Reading today to talk about a beautiful and very thought-provoking novel. Pearl by Sian Hughes. T

"After she left, I wondered, had I been spirited it away or had she? Was I still in the real world or was this some land of bad copy? What if my mother was looking everywhere for me, calling my name?

What if I could fall backwards out of this poor faded replica of reality and land in the middle of a bed of spurge? Look up and see my mother sitting under the apple tree threading her needle to sew my name onto school clothes I would never have to wear."


This is a book told in the first person about the life of a girl whose mother has disappeared. And we think about loss and grief,  about mothering, about motherlessness. We talk about families, about imperfect heroes. There is so much to think about within this novel.