Miriam's Presence at Christmas

Even in absence, Miriam’s spirit remains the heart of her family.

December 2009. Snow blankets East London in one of the harshest winters in memory. In the old family house once shared by Miriam, Roy, and Rafa, preparations for Christmas are underway. Miriam’s youngest daughter, Florence, now middle-aged, bustles to hold the family together alongside her twin daughters, Faith and Betty—both grown, headstrong, and carrying their own burdens.

As the festive season unfolds, the past surfaces: an emotional visit to Rafa in a care home, a few family disasters, and a looming divorce. Through it all, memories of Miriam linger in every corner of the house, warming the cold and softening the edges of pain.

When Faith—heavily pregnant with her third child—finds herself overwhelmed by the storm outside and the chaos within, she begins to sense that Miriam’s presence is not gone at all. Whether imagined or real, something is guiding her through this difficult Christmas.

Tender, atmospheric, and full of the complications of love and memory, this penultimate novel in the Miriam saga captures the deep, enduring mark left by one extraordinary woman on the generations that followed.