When I'm writing, I am concentrating almost wholly on concrete detail: the color a room is painted, the way a drop of water rolls off a wet leaf after a rain.

The plot is described thus: "“A young boy in New York City Theo Decker miraculously survives an accident that takes the life of his mother. Knopf 1992.  60-66.

She won the WH Smith Literary Award for The Little Friend in 2003.