I think the book would've come out between 1990 and 2005. It's set in the UK. It's about a quirky young woman who flees her family to start a new life in another city.
Plot:
A woman who is the sister to a clever, accomplished and beautiful older sister overhears her mother tell a friend that she (the mother) doesn't like her younger daughter. She wishes the younger daughter could be like her older sister. The daughter is deeply hurt by this and resents her mother and her sister. She grows up in her sister's shadow. One day her mother falls ill (or injures herself, can't remember which) and needs at-home care. The older sister sweeps in and tells the younger sister that she must give up her plans (study, work, etc.) and stay home to give her mother full-time care. Younger sister is so horrified that she finally summons up the courage to defy her family and literally runs out of the house and doesn't look back.
She ends up in another city (I think in Scotland), where she gets a job with a small independent publisher. She works in a dingy office with two or three older men and an eccentric boss. To amuse herself, she starts drawing cartoons about a rabbit (I think). Somehow the cartoons get noticed and she ends up getting published and gaining quite a fan base.
As time goes by she has a relationship with a man that produces a son. She has never faced her feelings about her family and the events that drove her to run away. Years later she returns home with her son and his father and has to face her fears and discovers her mother and sister are not quite who she thought they were.
Plot:
A woman who is the sister to a clever, accomplished and beautiful older sister overhears her mother tell a friend that she (the mother) doesn't like her younger daughter. She wishes the younger daughter could be like her older sister. The daughter is deeply hurt by this and resents her mother and her sister. She grows up in her sister's shadow. One day her mother falls ill (or injures herself, can't remember which) and needs at-home care. The older sister sweeps in and tells the younger sister that she must give up her plans (study, work, etc.) and stay home to give her mother full-time care. Younger sister is so horrified that she finally summons up the courage to defy her family and literally runs out of the house and doesn't look back.
She ends up in another city (I think in Scotland), where she gets a job with a small independent publisher. She works in a dingy office with two or three older men and an eccentric boss. To amuse herself, she starts drawing cartoons about a rabbit (I think). Somehow the cartoons get noticed and she ends up getting published and gaining quite a fan base.
As time goes by she has a relationship with a man that produces a son. She has never faced her feelings about her family and the events that drove her to run away. Years later she returns home with her son and his father and has to face her fears and discovers her mother and sister are not quite who she thought they were.
