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When nearly-divorced Eleanor Stebbins discovers that her daughter has come down with glandular fever a week before she starts her sixth form, she is in a bit of a pickle. Not only is her daughter in California recuperating at her father’s mansion, but Eleanor has an angry unpaid landlord and no prospect of alimony for mon...

‘Look at them,’ Mama said, chewing the words in the corner of her mouth. She meant the columns of families that I think were heading towards Gdanski Station.
‘Is that what you want to happen to us, Marcus?’
I had recited the M'zonot aloud, twice, to thank God in advance for the cake that he was sure to send me tomorrow, my birthday, so Mama was cross and now we were late and Papa would be twitching at the door. So I stayed silent. Then, remembering my new name and realizing that the question was for me, I began to prepare an answer. Yes, that is what I wanted to happen to us. Those people had been going somewhere, perhaps to Lazienki Park or the flea market in the Praga district or to see the statues at Wilanow Palace. Whole families together instead of just me...