Three generations of women. Three life altering events. As they discover the truth of their heritage, they’ll discover what makes the pieces of us…
THE PIECES OF US
by Claire Alexander
Penguin Michael Joseph UK, August 2025
(via Mushens Entertainment)
At fifty-eight Minnie McAllister isn’t an old woman. But as Alzheimer’s ravages her mind, her brain says otherwise.
Cat McAllister is tackling everything life can throw at her. And just when she thinks it can’t get any worse, she’s faced with the discovery that Minnie might not be the mother she once knew.
Meanwhile, Cat’s daughter, Ruby McAllister, who is staring at a two very blue lines, faces a decision that will change the course of her life.
As three generations of women are pulled in three different directions, each are forced to learn lessons about themselves that they never could have imagined.
Claire Alexander lives with her young family on the west coast of Scotland. A freelance journalist, she has written about parenting, sobriety, mental health and wellbeing for publications including The Washington Post, The Independent, The Huffington Post and Glamour. When she’s not writing or parenting, she’s on her paddle board, thinking about her next book. Claire is the author of Meredith, Alone and The Pieces of Us is her second novel.

In the farm fields surrounding Sault Ste. Marie, a border town in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, time seems to stand still. Summer, the sun scalds the local boys’ necks as they bale hay for cash. Winter, the girls bundle up against the cold and jostle through the high school halls like trailered sheep.
Alex Wilson hasn’t been back to Indigo Harbor, the seaside village where she grew up, in years. In fact, she can barely remember anything about it. But when her grandmother dies unexpectedly, Alex will have to return to her childhood home to say goodbye.




