How far will a woman go and what deprivations will she endure to find her first born child who has been taken from her at birth. Hand Me Down World by Lloyd Jones is a poignant story of an African woman who works at a tourist hotel in a northern African country and who, after a sexual encounter with a hotel guest, gives birth to a son. Although she sees the encounter and the birth as leading to a better life her world is turned up-side-down when her child is taken from her and adopted by a German family.

This book brings together loosely two themes plaguing our world today, people smuggling that, in the main, is driven by political persecution or the desire to escape economic uncertainty and build a better life for oneself, and, adoption of children across borders, often to the detriment of the natural mother.

Our mother, who we come to know as Ines, embarks on a perilous and arduous journey from northern Africa, across the Mediterranean, up though Italy and eventually making her way to Germany. All her worldly possessions are carried in a plastic waterproof bag. Apart from her native tongue she speaks a little English, has no money and with little awareness of how to get to her final destination. Her sole driving force is to find and be united with her baby son who was cruelly taken from her.

As she travels she touches the lives of numerous people. Initially we get to know Ines through their eyes as they interact with her and form their perceptions and judgments of who she is and what drives her. Underlying the formation of their relationships with Ines is their own personal needs, desires, guilt's, compassion and a myriad if other emotions. Each have only a part of what it is that drives Ines in her quest and none know the full extent of her dark past. Jones then swaps perspective and the story unfolds as we meet each of the people through Ines eyes. This time, however, we have the benefit of hearing Ines' story. When we look through Ines eyes we realise how her relationships were coloured because of her desperate need and her willingness to do anything to find her child.

Hand Me Down World by Lloyd Jones is a poignant story about one woman's survival against extreme odds. Lloyd Jones (also the author of the multi-award-winning bestseller, Master Pip) has written a masterful tale that brings home with force and reality the life of someone living on the edge of society and who is driven by a single force.