An uplifting and life-affirming novel about family lost and found from the author of Australian bestseller The Wakes
Sydney, 2001. Now in her forties, Maggie Reid has built a good life for herself, surrounded by good people. She has an adorable but needy dog and a new relationship. She has tried hard to leave her painful past behind her, but when her beloved brother Lucas calls with news of their adopted mother’s death, he also delivers a bombshell about Maggie’s birth mother.
So begins an uncertain, bumpy journey to trace her mother’s identity, a quest that brings fresh heartbreak but also unexpected joy. Maggie’s spent her whole life leaving, but now, for the first time, will she feel like staying?
Deeply empathetic, uncommonly witty and wise, Margaret, Are You Leaving? celebrates the messiness of family and the beauty of life in all its heartache and wonder.
(4/5)
I found this to be a lovely book and thoroughly enjoyed it. I read it in one day as it was so good. It made me think of how we should have more empathy for people. We have no idea what people have been through, or are going through, and how these events mould the person they are and the decisions they make.
Margaret is a lovely character, and her journey is a gradual one that she hadn’t originally intended to chase. I love the relationship with her brother, Lucas. It was lovely to see her find the connections she had in her past, the love that she didn’t know was there.
I will definitely recommend this to my friends.
(4/5)
Inspired by real events, this fictional story by Dianne Yarwood follows Margaret’s journey from being given up and given away as a baby. Why, Where, When.
I have not read Dianne Yarwood before, but her previous book, The Wakes, has many good reviews.
After reading the blurb, I was really looking forward to reading this. It is a really good story. It’s sad, it’s real, but I wanted it to be stronger. I wanted more depth. I felt it deserved to be stronger. I was nearly halfway through the book before it started to engage me. I felt that I didn’t get to know the characters enough.
Maggie isn’t always happy. Has she never…has she ever been loved? She keeps her stories to herself, but she finally opens up to Anna, and this starts off a scary and confronting journey.
With the help of Anna and her Scrabble Club friends, Maggie decides to go in search of some answers and hopes to find some pieces to her jigsaw. She wants to know if she’s ever been loved.
Maggie does eventually find answers, along with a new family.
How do you explain the value of being loved? What a great question. For a woman who always felt she wasn’t loved, Maggie finally felt and believed she was indeed loved.
(5/5)
This is such a lovely book and one I could really relate to. Its about
friends and family, and the relationships that aren’t always perfect.
(3/5)
On learning of her adopted mother’s death, Maggie goes looking for her birth mother
She didn`t intend to; she was happy enough as she was. But with a nudge from Anna, the search begins.
Anna is Maggie’s workmate, who becomes a good friend.
This is a heartfelt story about loss and friendship told through Anna and Maggie. Both women face tragedy in their own unique ways.
There is humour and strength in both women. I found them both very relatable.
Maggie is strong and warm despite tragedy. She is not one for self-pity.
Anna is the friend Maggie didn’t realise she needed.
This story takes the reader on a roller coaster of emotion and a glimpse of the traumas a distant war had on lives. Injustices of the past are revealed, and those decisions can never be taken back
I enjoyed this book a lot.
It is not a book I would usually pick up, but I am glad I had the opportunity to read it.
I found it hard to put down.
(4/5)
Margaret, Are You Leaving? By Dianne Yarwood is a beautifully written, compelling novel that will stay with me for a long time.
The protagonist, Margaret, is an interesting character, drawn with empathy and depth. Her struggles and decisions are authentically portrayed, making it easy to become invested in her poignant search for her lost family and the unconditional love we all deserve. The other characters in the novel, each with their own stories and personal battles, are also well-developed and highly relatable. The plot is well balanced, threading humour and happiness through the central themes of early trauma and abandonment.
Overall, Margaret, Are You Leaving? is a thoughtful, entertaining, and engaging read, which I would highly recommend.
(4/5)
This is the first time I have read a novel by this author, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I read it in one night, and despite the emotional subject matter, it was an enjoyable read.
The basic premise is of a woman in her mid-forties, who, through recent circumstances, has decided to search for her biological mother. Through her journey, we start to understand her motivations and why she makes the choices she does.
I really enjoyed the setting, as the Melbourne/Victorian places where I have connections, and the familiarity of them immersed me further into the story.
I found Maggie’s relationship with Anna, a work colleague who then becomes very close to and accompanies her on this journey, a bit contrived, as I would not see these two as becoming friends because of their different outlooks in life.
However, in the heart of this story is the relationship between mothers and daughters.
Anna’s mother, who is the epitome of maternal love and friendship, is in contrast to Maggie’s adoptive mother, who is alienating and at times cruel.
Maggie embarks on this search to understand her biological mother and why she made the choices she had.
The novel raised many issues in relation to families and friendships, and on how we all function differently in the construction of these relationships. However, despite the choices we make and the paths we take, we are all looking for that connection of love and acceptance.
I loved reading this novel and will now read her other novels.
(3/5)
A compelling read, mothers who have a huge impact on our lives both negatively and positively.
With two characters who had very different experiences with their mothers, they can provide support to each other despite their different experiences with their mothers. The jobs the characters had were interesting, and also, the time period the book was set in brought back memories.
(5/5)
Margaret, Are You Leaving? by Dianne Yarwood was a captivating and emotional read. I spent a few hours each day reading, and it quickly became something I couldn’t put down.
The book made me feel comforted and completely absorbed in the story. During a stressful time because of our house flooding, it gave me a much-needed escape and helped take my mind off everything.
The writing flowed beautifully, and the characters felt real and relatable. The emotional moments were especially strong and kept me fully engaged. There weren’t any parts where I lost interest, as it was compelling from start to finish.
While this was my first time reading this author, I would definitely read more of her work. I think readers who enjoy heartfelt and immersive stories will really love this book.
(3/5)
Margaret, Are You Leaving? is a warm and gentle story about identity, belonging, and the unexpected ways life can expand when you think your world is already set. Maggie begins the novel believing she has no family beyond the life she’s built for herself, and watching that belief slowly shift is one of the book’s quiet pleasures. The story moves at an easy, comforting pace, focusing more on connection than drama.
The humour was the standout for me. The sharp one‑liners and sudden, dry comments gave the book real personality, and there were moments that genuinely made me laugh out loud. The chemistry between Will and Maggie — especially their shared sense of humour — added warmth and charm to the narrative.
There is a late emotional reveal that adds depth without overwhelming the tone, and while the story remains gentle, it still offers enough movement to stay engaging. One character’s personal struggles are introduced with real weight but then fade away quickly, leaving that thread feeling unfinished. Another character introduced mid‑book isn’t mentioned again for many chapters, and without a reminder, I’d lost track of who she was.
Overall, this is a heartfelt, quietly uplifting read that fans of warm contemporary fiction will enjoy.
(3/5)
Kindly sent to me by Good Reading for review, a period in the life of two women who work shifts together on the reception desk at Channel 5 in Sydney, largely fielding calls from viewers, is chronicled. Anna keeps in close touch with her mother, living in the UK, from whence Anna hails. When her mother dies, Anna crumbles, heavily medicated. Maggie shares with Anna how she was abandoned by her mother to a hideously traumatic childhood, resulting in Maggie having perpetual difficulties in forming successful relationships. Anna suggests they try to find Maggie’s mother, and thus begins a journey, both literally (around Victoria) and emotionally, as Anna tries to climb out of her psychological distress and find herself again, whilst Maggie tries to find her mother and understand why she abandoned her. My own mother died in the UK when COVID restrictions meant that I was unable to see her for a while or say goodbye, but I still struggled to identify with Anna’s crumbling. I also found the book lacked a smooth “flow” and some chapters occasionally seemed rather disjointed from each other. In spite of this, I enjoyed the book, which is rather heartwarming in many respects.
(5/5)
If we keep leaving and running, how will we ever arrive?
Maggie Reid has had a rough start to life. Abandoned as a baby, she is now in her forties, single, and has just found out that her fearsome adoptive mother has died. Along with her work colleague Anna, she decides that the time has come to trace her birth mother.
Meanwhile, Anna is drowning in her own grief, as her own much-loved mother has also died. Joy and gladness seem a long way away.
Throw in a Scrabble Club full of kind and thoughtful neighbours and the delightful Will, who is not put off in the slightest by Maggie’s heart-wrenching discoveries, and you have a beautiful, raw, but uplifting story about the deep imprints that our families leave on our souls.
I loved this book and read it in two days. Maggie, Anna, Will, and all the minor characters are relatable, real, and likeable. It tugged at my heartstrings, but in an excellent way. If you are looking for a story that will fill your cup and bring joy deep down in your bones, Margaret, Are You Leaving? is the book for you.
(5/5)
Margaret, Are You Leaving? included many layers and themes of loss, grief, childhood trauma, friendship, and connection, making an intriguing plot, and characters emerged who felt real and relatable. I was personally surprised at how much I enjoyed this book, as it’s not my usual reading genre, but I could not put the book down once I started!
I loved the writing of the novel, with the realism of the characters, you felt like you knew them personally. You will keep wanting to dig deeper into Maggie’s past and what she was uncovering in the present day, for piecing everything together, and hoping she will find closure. Even though I cannot relate to the experiences portrayed in the novel, I felt very emotionally invested and asked many questions about what led to this outcome.
Dianne Yarwood wrote a well-balanced novel, where there was sadness/ grief, and we were also shown strong community and friendship, tying in with Anna’s fate and Maggie’s childhood/ present day.
I would highly recommend Margaret, Are You Leaving? as your next 2026 read!
(5/5)
I loved this book from the very start. It immediately drew me in and kept me engaged the whole way through.
Maggie is a deeply relatable and well-developed character, and I felt a strong sense of empathy for her early on. The friendships in the story are a real highlight, adding warmth and balance to some of the more emotional moments.
The Scrabble club was a standout element for me; it added charm and a strong sense of community, and I also really enjoyed the subtle pieces of history woven throughout, which gave the story a nostalgic feel.
This is a heartfelt and thoughtful novel that explores family, identity, and belonging with sensitivity and insight. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it.
(4/5)
I found this a really engaging, uplifting, and relatable read.
It was quite a heartfelt journey following Maggie’s journey after Lucas’ news. Kept me reading and was really descriptive about heartache and loss- a memorable read that celebrates life and death with light humour along the way. Quick and a real page turner. I would recommend.
(5/5)
I immediately went out and bought Yarwood’s previous book, ‘The Wakes’, after reading this one. I found her to be such a fabulous storyteller. Her characters had richness and depth with relatable issues such as mental illness and the torture of chronic insomnia. Yarwood has fast become my new go-to author.
(5/5)
Margaret Are You Leaving is a beautifully written story. I was captivated and engaged from the start, right through to the end.
I loved the characters of Maggie and Anna, who worked together and formed a strong bond and friendship. Each had their own struggles and issues. They helped one another and told each other what had happened in their lives. I felt sad and sorry for Maggie as she described what it was like being abandoned by her parents. She had been forced to work in a Magdalen laundry for 9 hours a day, six days a week, for a year.
I liked the quote, “Doesn’t life offer a fundamental promise to every child born: You will be loved, you will be cared for, you will be nurtured.” Maggie felt she was owed an apology from her mother for leaving her. She had one question for her mother: did she love me?
The story has many themes, including relationships between mothers and daughters, friendships, family lost then found, new relationships, adoption, grief, hope, love, migrants along with the struggles they faced, and identity.
I highly recommend reading this wonderful book.
(5/5)
This story I found to be a very heartwarming and emotionally rich, and satisfying read, with some humour-filled, laugh-out-loud moments.
The setting is in Sydney, where we meet two main characters, Maggie (Margaret) and Anna, who are colleagues manning the switchboard at a news network. Maggie was adopted and had a particularly hard relationship with her adoptive mother, who was also very strict and emotionally abusive. Maggie is told her adoptive mother has died, and she is not sure how to feel, but knows she hates the woman. This kickstarts her journey toward discovering who she really is. Anna, on the other hand, has had a loving, close relationship with her mother, who also suddenly dies, and Anna’s world falls apart.
Both characters subsequently go on an emotional journey whilst both facing grief and loss, in an attempt to piece together Maggie’s story and find answers about where she came from. Maggie’s journey also somewhat helps Anna to start healing from the loss of her own mother.
I found Maggie’s character to be a very warm, loving, and likeable person, who shows true vulnerability, particularly when she has a strong sense that she was unloved, hence meaning she must also be an unloving person herself (which we can tell from her relationships, is not true).
Some heavy themes are included in the book, such as adoption, institutional care, trauma (parents’ experiences of war), migrant life in Australia, alcohol abuse, anxiety, depression, and prescription medication addiction.
In the end, strong friendships and relationships prevail to overcome grief. Additionally, this journey of self discovery and finding out who you really are can help to heal past wounds caused by trauma and help move forward. There may have also been a few ‘happy tears’ shed for Maggie as she discovers a few extra family members along the way.
Overall, this was an emotionally powerful story.
(4/5)
Margaret, Are You Leaving? by Dianne Yarwood explores the enduring need for maternal connection. The novel follows Margaret’s search to understand her birth mother alongside Anne’s experience of living without her own. These parallel stories are told with sensitivity, allowing the emotional weight of absence to unfold naturally.
The book also feels like a quiet time capsule, capturing life in early 2000s Sydney, when finding someone involved paperwork and manual searches. It adds a nostalgic layer and highlights how different things are today. There are also glimpses into the lives of 1950s migrants shaped by war, raising thoughtful questions about what might lead a mother to leave a child.
Yarwood’s writing is gentle and reflective, with a strong focus on relationships. The friendships bring warmth, while the inclusion of mental health themes adds depth and realism.
I read Dianne Yarwood’s previous book, The Wakes, and didn’t enjoy it as much, but this novel was far more engaging. I found myself compelled to keep reading to see how it would end.
Overall, Margaret, Are You Leaving? is a heartfelt and thought-provoking read, blending sadness with moments of quiet joy.
(4/5)
A charming novel about female friendship, family, belonging, and how our personal history defines us. The novel traces the developing friendship between Maggie & Anna as Maggie searches for her mother and Anna faces her own issues. As Maggie pieces together her past Yarwood gently asks us to consider the migrant experience and how that shaped their families.
The characters are beautifully drawn and allow the reader to empathise with them. Yarwood writes with warmth and humour, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel.
(4/5)
Margaret, Are You Leaving? is a quietly powerful exploration of the invisible threads that shape us and the friendships that hold us together. At its heart are Maggie and Anna, two friends who set out together to find Maggie’s mother. What makes it so compelling is the depth of this character development. Their relationship feels real and altered, shaped by both support and their own personal backgrounds. You can’t help but become invested in how their stories unfold. Their contrasting childhoods add emotional weight, making every moment feel meaningful.
It’s the kind of book that keeps you turning the pages, needing to know how it ends.
(3/5)
I was intrigued by the book’s blurb. As someone with a complicated relationship with my mother – and a best friend who has a wonderful one – I expected to see similarities between both experiences, alas, our stories were wildly different!
It took me a while to get into the story. I struggled to understand the main characters’ ages, which made it harder to relate to them. There were also several major world events that didn’t seem to add much to the narrative, and I found Anne’s medical episode unnecessary. However, during chapter 14, something significant happened, and the story finally became engaging. Then, in chapter 16, when Maggie’s age was revealed, I began reconsidering earlier events and piecing together her life more clearly.
I appreciated the inclusion of the convent, as it added depth to Maggie’s character and made me more invested in her finding happiness and resolution. From then on, I was invested in Maggie’s story.
The first half took weeks to read, while the second half took only days. In the end, my perseverance paid off.
(5/5)
Margaret, are you leaving? by Dianne Yarwood is a heartwarming story about mother-daughter relationships and the meaning of love. Anna and Margaret are friends and have very different experiences of love growing up and as adults. The story traces Margaret’s upbringing, born to WWII migrants and the challenging lives they endured.
Anna has a very close relationship with her mother, but she lives in the UK, and Anna is drawn by a need to go and see her mother before the inevitable happens and she passes away. Margaret is urged by friends to investigate her past and upbringing, and so begins her journey of discovery of who she is and who showed her love when she needed it.
Yarwood has used the true experiences of a friend to describe some of the events in Margaret’s life growing up, which reflects the reality of life in Australia during that period.
The story is told with humour, but also the difficult times are insightful and told with empathy. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and also Yarwood’s debut novel, The Wakes.
(5/5)
This book has deeply resonated with me, especially the parts where Anna loses her mother and has to navigate life in the aftermath. The mental impact of losing someone is enormous — it touches every aspect of your life. I lost my mother when I was 15, and I still carry that grief 13 years later. I was too young to understand how to process what had happened, and I didn’t know what to do next.
I’ve also never met my father. Like Margaret, I grew up without a father figure, and for a long time, it didn’t bother me. But as I got older, I found myself wondering what kind of childhood I might have had if I’d grown up with both parents — if I hadn’t lost my mother so young. That curiosity lingers, but I suppose that’s life. Those experiences shaped me and made me resilient.
In my early twenties, I struggled deeply. I often felt like I was ruining my life because I didn’t have proper guidance. I didn’t have anyone to ask for advice, anyone to confide in, anyone to share my stories, my achievements, or my failures with. This book captured that feeling of navigating life alone in a way that felt incredibly real to me.
I’m very grateful to have received a free copy of this book. In a way, it feels like the universe is reminding me that everything is going to be alright.
I would love to see this story adapted into a TV series. I highly recommend it.
(5/5)
I absolutely loved this book. The characters were easy to relate to and genuinely likable, making it easy to become invested in their journeys. The storyline was engaging from start to finish, keeping me interested the entire way through.
I especially appreciated how the book was structured in three parts. The first part beautifully sets the foundation, giving insight into Maggie’s early life. The second part draws you into the search for her birth mother, building curiosity and emotional depth. By the third part, you really feel the impact of everything that’s unfolded, as Maggie begins to process the answers she’s uncovered and how they shape her life.
The ending was particularly satisfying – well written and neatly resolved, without leaving lingering questions. It felt complete in a way that many books don’t quite achieve.
This is definitely a book I’ll come back to and revisit.
(4/5)
Margaret, Are You Leaving? By Dianne Yarwood is the story of what it means to be loved, to belong, and what family and connection mean.
Margaret was adopted as a child and never felt loved by her parents. Anna feels a deep love and connection, despite living on the other side of the world, to her affectionate mother. When Anna loses her mother, it prompts a search for Margaret to discover who her mother is and where she came from.
Yarwood explores the many facets of grief eloquently. She also explores the consequences of abandonment, such as self-worth and the actions of self-preservation, in an elegant and heartfelt way with vibrant and real characters.
Readers who enjoy warm, inviting and fully fleshed out characters will enjoy this story and the uplifting and sensitive way Yarwood approaches these topics and explores what it means to love and be loved.
(5/5)
Margaret, Are You Leaving by Dianne Yarwood is a heartwarming and heartbreaking story of two women, Maggie (Margaret) and Anna. While their journeys are different, both are incredibly emotional and moving. A story about friendship and family, of love and hate, of despair and joy, of hope and hopelessness!
A highlight for me was the Scrabble Club, which was novel but a wonderful way for people to socialise and added a fun element to the story, giving the characters a different environment to bring out their personalities and interactions. It certainly gave many of the characters the emotional support they needed when times were tough and a place to share in a safe place.
Highly recommended read.