Coming of age - Valerie Mendes

When her mother is killed in a riding accident, nine-year-old Amy is left mute and traumatised. She was there - but she cannot remember what happened and she is haunted by a nightmare that she cannot fully explain. Gradually her voice returns, but not her memory. Her relationship with her father deepens as she grows older, and she resigns herself to living with the blanks. As long as she has her dad, she can cope with anything. Then six years later, as Amy turns sixteen and a new woman enters her father's life, the chance discovery of a hidden postcard gives her the vital clue she needs to uncover the truth about the past. It takes her to Italy, to a man she has never met. Was he her mother's lover - or her killer? The threads of the past lead inexorably back to the present and, as they gradually allow her to remember those horrific moments she thought forever buried, finally - and in more ways than one - Amy comes of age.