These creative nonfiction essays consider girlhood, motherhood, violence at home and abroad, violence against women, the consolation in writing, trauma, and redemption. The essays celebrate and interrogate popular and literary culture: for example the film Breakfast at Tiffany's, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Alun Lewis's love letters, David Bowie's `Life on Mars', or the poet John Burnside's writings about his abusive father. These timely meditations on women, ethics, and writing bring insights that only an immigrant and traveller like Brigley could provide.