Out Now! The new novella.

Book blurb

After the death of her steady, constraining husband, Catherine discovers that grief can be a liberation. With her adult children appalled by her sudden transformations, and a strangely familiar presence in the house urging her on, she begins to test the boundaries of who she might become.

A call arrives on her newly purchased phone – a widower, Alec, still dialling the number once owned by his dead wife. What follows is a transgressive, intoxicating relationship built on longing, lies and the hunger to feel alive. 

All the Days I Did Not Live is a haunting exploration of loneliness, taboo and the dangerous, but delicious, magic of reinvention – where freedom comes at a cost and even the ghosts refuse to stay quiet…

My thoughts

When Catherine’s husband dies she realises her life hasn’t been what it might have, that the men in her life (father and husband) were constraining and in the case of one far worse. Her relationship with her children, especially her daughter, isn’t what she wished for it to be either.

Had she really loved her husband or just taken the proposal as a way out?

Rather than going into mourning Catherine is considering what to do when she is contacted on her new phone by Alec, who is ringing his dead wife’s phone number. They strike up a relationship that has Catherine travelling to Paris.

Alec is still very much in love with his deceased wife, Catherine is seeking to find a different, a new, a better way of being and living. What do Alec and Catherine have? Well beyond the physical it is complicated but could it be love?

Catherine looks at her past, her relationships and what she wants. Can she resolve the things in her past and go forward?

One of my favourite parts of this story is that of Catherine and her mother rebuilding their relationship. An incident in the kitchen involving her father finally gets her mother to react and albeit not verbally, acknowledge what had happened in the past. They go out together and the scene at a café of them deciding on what cake to have, they all look so good, is funny, delightful and begins to build a bond between them. Can she do the same with her children?

I do love this form and All the Days I Did Not Live by Anna Vaught did not disappoint. It is a captivating and engaging read which I thoroughly enjoyed reading and would heartily recommend.

Book: Purchased (via Renard’s book subscription)

Information

Published: Renard Press | Paperback | ISBN: 9781804471968 | 120pp

Buy: Renard Press | Your local bookshop | Your local library | Bookshop.org (affiliate link) | Hive

Dr Anna Vaught is an Anglo-Welsh writer, English teacher, mentor and author of ten books, across genre and form, including novels Saving Lucia and The Zebra and Lord Jones, short fiction collection, Famished and teaching book, The Alchemy. In 2022 Anna launched The Curae, a new literary prize for writers who are also unpaid carers. She is the mother of three sons, comes from a large Welsh family and lives in Wiltshire.

Website | @BookwormVaught

Books

From Renard Press

Zebra and Lord Jones | The Elixir | The Alchemist | Her Winter Song | All The Days I Did Not Live

From other publishers

Saving Lucia | Famished | Ravished | Killing Hapless Ally | The Life of Almost | These Envoys of Beauty | Hinterland: Spring 10 – essays | To Melt The Stars 

Reading Wales Month 2026

Reading Wales Month is hosted by Karen at BookerTalks and Kath Eastman from Nut Press. This will the ninth year in which we turn the spotlight on authors from Wales and celebrate literature from this Celtic nation.

All The Days I Did Not Live by Dr Anna Vaught is my second read in this challenge.