Careless - Deborah Robertson

Eight-year-old Pearl tries very hard to get things right. In their cramped apartment, she watches over her small brother and manages her mother's happiness, while carefully guarding her private passions. But the events of a summer's day are about to change Pearl's world, and nothing may ever be right again.

In a cooler, greener suburb Sonia is learning to live alone after the death of her husband, and at the edge of the city, close to the beaches, the young artist Adam Logan is hoping that his controversial exhibit will improve his fortunes. In unforeseen ways, Pearl's tragedy will draw the threads of all their lives together.

Combining the intimacy of a family's heartache with the suspense of a thriller, Careless is a gripping, seductive novel about the ties of caring and responsibility that are both formed and broken in today's society, and about the resilience of the human psyche.