What would you do if you were invisible to your husband and your teenage son? How would you feel if they no longer spoke to you; if you knew your husband had had an affair? And what if your mother, a life-long alcoholic, had just suffered a stroke that would see her become completely dependent on you? Above all, what if you were cherishing a secret grief so bitter and painful that it was consuming you from within?

Then imagine that one day you won £30,000 on the horses. Would you take the money and simply walk away?

Deveney explores the loneliness, secrets and silences that can haunt even the most loving of families. Using a second narrator, a caustic and ambitious young policewoman, she also weaves in a troubling sub-plot that brings to light the damage that is sometimes handed down from one generation to another. A beautifully written, poignant and thought-provoking book, Ties That Bind takes a clear-eyed look at the bonds between people, and the way in which – against all odds – some can never be broken.