Peace Lily - Synopsis

After the accidental death of her daughter Lily, Niamh McNamara moved from Surrey to Shetland with her husband to start a new life. Ten years later, their marriage is floundering and their new life has failed to patch over their grief. The story opens on a sunny day in May when Niamh finally wakes up to the realisation that things are not going well between her and Michael. Her clumsy attempt at rekindling some romance is rebuffed and while she gets her head around this problem she is shocked to hear news of the young man who was involved in the accident that killed Lily.

For many years the McNamaras and the Dubuissons lived next door to each other in a village near Guildford and were close friends, especially when their daughters, Lily and Amelie were born just a few months apart. However, when Amelie’s older brother Dominic reverses his mother’s car into Lily, the friendships disintegrate rapidly. Niamh blamed Dominic in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy and he struggled to cope with the guilt and loss. He dropped out of Art College on the point of a nervous breakdown, and when he recovered he took up a nursing degree, as he felt compelled to do something that would make a positive difference to the world. After qualifying as a paediatric nurse he became involved in Aid work in Africa and eventually started up his own charity, the Peace Lily Foundation.

In the opening chapter Niamh hears the news that Dominic has been kidnapped on the Moroccan/Algerian border and that his mother, Angela, and sister are on their way to Casablanca to try and negotiate for his release. Niamh discovers that Angela’s husband died of cancer a year ago and in the face of all this news she feels a compulsion to track down Angela to offer her help and sympathy. Michael tries to dissuade her from doing so as he feels that it is a waste of time and too dangerous. However, Niamh is determined to do so and Michael ends up following his wife to Africa.

When they meet up with Angela and Amelie, they get an unexpected response. The Dubuissions are too distracted with their search for Dominic to address the issue of reconciliation. It is impossible to get news about Dominic and his colleagues, so his mother decides to travel down to the border to see if she can trace her son.

When Dominic eventually escapes, he has lost his best friend and his girlfriend has lost her baby. But in the midst of all this trauma and grief the two families become friends again and Niamh and Michael find a way to salvage their marriage.

The theme of the novel is loss and reconciliation and deals with the far reaching repercussions of the accident. Both families suffered as a result of the accident and both handled it in superficially similar ways, by uprooting and starting again. This strategy resulted in an unexpected mix of success and failure. However, as individuals they each dealt with grief differently and failed to see how their reactions impacted on others.