Rosaleen is young, beautiful and still a schoolgirl when, in the early sixties, she meets the famous sculptor Felix Lehmann. Felix is Jewish and bohemian, while Rosaleen is the tearaway middle daughter of Irish publicans. At first their love affair is glitteringly romantic and has to be kept a secret from her parents. But everything changes when Rosaleen finds herself pregnant. Evicted from her flat and dismissed from her job, she travels to Ireland to a convent that promises to house her until her baby is safely delivered. The reality that meets her there, however, is far from what she has been promised…
Kate lives in present day London with her young daughter, stumbling through her unhappy marriage. Close to breaking point, she heads to Ireland, not yet fully knowing what she hopes to find there…
Aoife sits at her husband Cashell’s bedside as he lies dying and tells him the story of their lifetime together: of their courtship in wartime London, their three daughters, their return from exile. But there is a crucial part of the story missing, and, with time running out, Aoife needs Cashell to tell her: what became of their daughter Rosaleen?
Esther Freud is the author of nine novels, the first of which, Hideous Kinky, was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys prize and made into a film starring Kate Winslet. Her other works include Peerless Flats, The Sea House, Lucky Break and Mr Mack and Me, which won Best Novel in the East Anglian Book Awards, cementing her reputation as a brilliant and accomplished storyteller. Now, she returns with I Couldn’t Love You More, an unforgettable novel about love, motherhood, secrets and betrayal—and how only the truth can set us free.
This sweeping, multi-generational story follows Aoife, Rosaleen and Kate from WWII London, to Ireland in the sixties and finally to the present day. The novel jumps back and forth between timelines and perspectives, which can at first be dizzying, but is necessary to chart the bonds between these three women.
Inspired partly by Freud’s own family history, I Couldn’t Love You More is a heartbreaking and tenderly wrought novel that sheds light on the Catholic Church’s incarceration of unwed pregnant women and the forced adoption of their babies. In writing Rosaleen, Kate and Aoife’s story, Freud finally gives a voice to these women, demonstrating how some actions can ripple through generations.
Stirring and nostalgic at moments, visceral and propulsive at others, I Couldn’t Love You More is a tender and candid portrait of love, motherhood and the enduring ties of family.
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