The Rules of Inheritance

Claire Bidwell Smith, a fourteen-year-old only child, learns that both her parents have cancer. The fear of becoming a family of one compels her to make a series of fraught choices, set against the glittering backdrop of New York and Los Angeles.

When the inevitable happens and Claire is alone in the world, she is inconsolable at the revelation that suddenly she is no one’s special person. It is only later, when Claire falls in love, marries and becomes a mother, that she emerges from the fog of grief.

Using the five stages of grief as a window onto her personal experience, Claire Bidwell Smith has written a powerful memoir that is at once exquisite and profound.

'Bidwell Smith's writing is beautiful and honest, drawing you in both to sympathise and see what happens next. She perfectly illustrates the pain of losing loved ones, and the need to deal with it if life is to improve.' Herald Sun