She could be anyone. She could be you.

Nobody ever found out what happened to Laika Martenwood, the girl who vanished without a trace on her way to school one morning. But for her sister Willa, life shattered into tiny pieces that day, and she has never been able to put them back together again.

Willa sees Laika everywhere: on buses, at parties, in busy streets. It’s been twenty-five years, and the only thing that has kept her going is her belief that her sister is alive, somewhere. 

But when a dinner party conversation about childhood memories spirals out of control, a shattering revelation from one of the guests forces Willa to rethink everything she thought she knew about her past. And, out of the debris of that explosive evening, the truth of what really happened begins to emerge. Piece by piece.

Masterfully plotted with shades of MAGPIE and THE PUSH, THINGS DON'T BREAK ON THEIR OWN is a propulsive debut about how our memories shape us, and the lies we tell to escape them.

'So so so good. A bruising, brilliant and beautiful mystery. An elegant, twisting story of loss and longing, of the ache of the unknown and the drowning weight of past trauma. A very special debut' CHRIS WHITAKER, NYT BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF WE BEGIN AT THE END