The Lost Girls, by Jennifer Spence

Empty nester Stella suddenly finds herself 20 years back in time, in 1997, and involved with the life of herself and her family at that time, when she was in her 40s with two teenage kids. To explain her presence in their lives she adopts the persona of her aunt Linda, who went missing as a young woman. She hopes to influence the choices of her daughter Claire, who is 12 at this time and whom Stella knows will die at the age of 16. Can she, should she alter the past and therefore the future and what will be the consequences if she does? Stella tries hard not to let on about her advanced knowledge of technology and future events, except for telling the truth to her mother – the real Linda’s older sister. In fact her very presence in the past is altering the present as well as the future and her memories of it are changing as it happens. The time conundrum gets convoluted and starts to do your head in after a while, especially when the point of view suddenly changes from that of Stella from the future to Stella in 1997 and then back again. It is cleverly done, although the story of what happened to the real Linda doesn’t quite mesh with the main tale of Stella’s influence – past and present – on her kids, Claire and Julian. Memory and regret, care and responsibility, sadness and acceptance haunt this book, but Stella remains somehow a remote figure who keeps a distance between thought and feeling.