Book review: Family secrets meet cold-case thrills

Author Carmel Harrington has written 14 books.

• The Nowhere Girls 
• Carmel Harrington
• Headline Review, €15.99 

IN DECEMBER 1995, on the same day US president Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton are visiting Dublin, two young girls are abandoned on a platform in Pearse Station.

Despite appeals to the public, no one comes forward to claim them and the younger of the two is adopted while the elder girl grows up in care, not wanting to be adopted as she is so convinced their mother will return. That’s the prologue of the novel, which takes its title from how the media refer to the girls.

Thirty years later, investigative journalist Vega is determined to find out what happened — where did the girls come from, and why did no one claim them. It’s not long before readers discover that she is the elder abandoned girl, an outsider who grew up searching for where she belongs. Now she wants to find little sister Nova and their parents, or at least their mother.

As part of her research, she interviews the social worker, now retired, who dealt with the girls at the time, who describes four-year-old Vega as “lost within herself” and says: “She believed she was worthless and undeserving of love.”

That lack of self-worth still influences Vega who is so cautious about relationships that she risks alienating Luka, her boyfriend. For instance, although they have been together for a while, she has not allowed him to visit her cottage, so when she eventually does, it’s a sign that she is beginning to let her barriers down.

Vega has recently written an article about Annette, a mother forced by dreadful circumstances to abandon her infant daughter at a fire station.

“While the media had been fair in their coverage, Annette had been put on trial on social media and found guilty on all counts.” In her writing on the case, Vega “was determined to bring some nuance and balance to the discussion surrounding a parent abandoning their child”.

It’s an early sign that Vega is compassionate and prepared to be open-minded about why she and her sister had been abandoned.

Vegas’s editor Kieran is supportive of her writing and of her desire to investigate the case of the “nowhere girls”, although she does not initially tell him she is one of them.

Through submitting DNA to an ancestry website, she has discovered that she has close relatives in Vermont so, accompanied by Luka, she sets out to meet them. 

The narrative moves quickly and has lots of twists and turns. It’s interesting in its reminders of the 1960s and 1970s, including protests against the Vietnam War, the famous festival at Woodstock, and of the idealism which encouraged young people in particular to choose to live together in communes. There are beautiful descriptions of the New England landscapes, and of farming carried out there.

On returning to Ireland, her explorations take her to Connemara where again, Harrington’s descriptions of the landscape are really effective. Along the way, she meets a lot of interesting characters, most of them likeable, and all of them convincing.

We see Vega change as her exploration intensifies and she starts to believe in herself and to open herself up to others. However, all is not positive, as she is so obsessed with her search that she betrays the trust of Luka, her partner, who is a social worker.

The novel has an unusual and convincing storyline, and its pace keeps the reader engaged. The narrative is interspersed with transcribed interviews with some of the people Vega meets, a reminder that she is a journalist. Carmel Harrington has written 14 books, and lives in Co Wexford, where part of The Nowhere Girls is set.

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