Overview

A gripping auto-fictional novel about a long-kept family secret, painful love and female experience of barriers in society. A young woman in post-war Germany is looking for a new start after the horror of the Nazi years and the war and has to make a far-reaching decision which will affect the rest of her life. Many decades later her daughter who lives and works a as a psychotherapist in present day Britain looks back on her mother's life and tries to understand this decision. She herself struggles with the loss of her husband and her own impending old age. As a consequence of looking at her mother's story and as a result of her own need to feel alive again, the daughter starts to mirror her mother's story and begins to echo her mother's experience of painful love and broken boundaries. This is a book about guilt, love and identity. While it has at its center the fallout of a love triangle, the story is told against the backdrop of post-war Germany, with the world of psychotherapy and the narrator's experience of being an older woman providing an extra dimension. The author weaves personal reflections and poetic images into the narrative. For readers who look for psychological depth: A Dance of Mirrors talks of a special mother/daughter relationship, of secrets and silence in families and in society and of women's struggle to be the authors of their own lives.

Full Product Details

9783747208472

Table of Contents

Reviews

""A novel about the unspoken legacy of the past. Annette Byford weaves together the stories of two women with linguistic precision and psychological depth. She manages to connect individual life stories with collective history. In detailed retrospectives, personal reflections and poetic images a deeply human novel emerges"" ""I devoured the book in one go- it was impossible not to. Such a moving and profound story. I love the clarity and poetry of the style, the emotional depth and psychological precision and how the layers of time and experience have been woven together"" ""The beautiful language and calm narrative style captivated me right from the start. I would absolutely recommend this to anybody who reads thought provoking novels with psychological depth"" ""The style is remarkable. It is unfussy, but intelligent, warm and moving. I marked several passages to think further about it. For me definitely a highlight of this year."" ""A quiet book that lingers in your thoughts for a long time."" ""A wonderful book about belonging and loneliness."" ""Poignant and honest.""

Author Information

Annette Byford was born and raised in Germany and moved to the UK in her twenties where she has since lived and worked as a psychotherapist. She has written and published several books, starting with non-fiction books dealing with family dynamics closely linked to her thinking as a psychotherapist. ""A Dance of Mirrors"" is her first novel and was published in 2025 in its German edition.More information can be found on her author website annettebyford.co.uk

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