Catriona`s mother abandoned her when she was 13. Now, years later, she starts getting postcards from her mother, who wants to reconcile. This couldn`t have come at a worse time: Cat`s young daughter has some sort of stomach ailment that the doctors can neither diagnose nor cure--and seem to consider to be psychosomatic, and probably Cat`s fault. Has her own childhood trauma somehow been passed on to little Daisy? Gradually, her husband stops believing in the illness--but another man is more sympathetic. A New York Times Notable Book for 2003.