Margot Livesey Books in Order

An obituary writer, elderly sisters, a married couple and an unloved child confront the difficult bonds that shape their lives. These stories explore intimacy, family obligations and the distance between what people need and what they can offer.

Celia Gilchrist leaves an unsatisfactory life in London for Edinburgh and a relationship with Stephen. When his young daughter Jenny joins their household, Celia finds her new beginning complicated by jealousy, manipulation, and competing claims on affection.

A banker traveling to visit his troubled sister discovers an abandoned baby at a bus station. His decision to intervene connects the siblings with the child's mother, drawing questions of responsibility and belonging into their damaged lives.

After an accident erases several years of Hazel's memory, her former boyfriend Jonathan tries to reshape their shared past. Two strangers become involved as his apparent care grows into an increasingly controlling version of her recovery.

Born in Scotland as her mother dies, Eva McEwen grows up with two companions invisible to everyone else. Their interventions offer comfort but also complicate her relationships, forcing her to contend with their influence over her life.

London carpenter and painter Zeke falls for Verona while working on a house, but the pregnant woman suddenly disappears. Her journey to Boston and her brother's financial troubles complicate Zeke's attempts to understand and find her.

An actress, her academic partner, a therapist friend, and the friend's father inhabit overlapping stories of love and private history. Their connections around a London house expose the differing memories and loyalties each brings to intimate relationships.

Orphan Gemma Hardy endures a hostile aunt and a boarding school where she works as well as studies. An au pair position in the Orkney Islands promises independence, but introduces further secrets and difficult choices.

Viv's growing obsession with a horse revives ambitions her husband Donald scarcely understands. As she becomes convinced the animal is endangered, his grief and inattention leave their marriage vulnerable to choices with consequences neither anticipated.

Margot Livesey combines personal essays with close readings to examine how fiction is made. Discussions of research, characterization, and literary models encourage readers and aspiring writers to recognize the craft concealed within accomplished stories and novels.

Three teenage siblings discover an injured boy while walking home from school. The encounter sends each toward different questions about violence, desire, and identity, while unease about their parents' marriage unsettles the family they share.

Growing up on her grandparents’ Scottish farm, Lizzie Craig discovers she can glimpse the future without controlling it. Following Louis to Glasgow brings new possibilities, but her gift and a consequential mistake complicate her search for love and belonging.