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I had a miscarriage in January 2004. It wasÌýmy first pregnancy and theÌýgrief of that loss was overwhelming.ÌýI went backÌýhome to my parents' house in Derry to recover. I didn't want to talk to anyone, didn't want the sympathy, however well meaning.ÌýI remember hiding in a book of all things. My brother had bought me for Christmas a hardback copy of Jeffrey Eugenides' Pulitzer prize winningÌýnovelÌý"Middlesex". It wasÌýa mighty tome of a book and the strangest, saddest story of a young child Cal born as both male and female.ÌýI lived for that book. Every day I would devour it, forgetting my own sorrow in the telling of this amazing boy/girl child. The heartbreak of it spoke to my own heartbreak. His/her pain was as raw as mine.ÌýI was cocooned by it.

Seven years on, I am now readingÌýJeffrey Eugenides latest book "The Marriage Plot".ÌýIt's his first book since "Middlesex". Seven years on from reading "Middlesex", I haveÌýtwoÌýchildrenÌýand live a good life in Belfast. I want to tell him how much his book helped me, but I don't think I will.