Superficially, this novel is a routine woman-finds-love romance and a woman's personal journey of self-discovery, but it also deals with the dark-side of romantic fairytales - sexual assault and domestic violence.

Faith is a legal counselor with an organization called SISTAA (Sisters In Struggle Together To Alleviate Abuse) and as Faith says "….a hell of a mouthful for someone with a broken jaw or split lip."

Using brief flash-backs and flash-forwards, the timeline of Faith's story can be confusing in the beginning of the novel, moving through sometimes irritatingly brief glimpses of isolated disconnected events and characters in her childhood and adolescence. There are also a large number of characters which move in and out of the story and sub-plots which can also be confusing. However, through such episodes, we learn the significance of the book's title, particularly in conversations with her Italian migrant grandmother, Nonna, who explains to Faith, "Things without a name don't exist. They are lost".

Faith at work, listens to endless horrific stories of male violence against women. The violence she has to listen to, deal with and give advice about each day, (often ignored) slowly threatens to overwhelm her own personal life, including adopting self-harming behaviours in the privacy of her bathroom.

She works on, struggling in an ethical minefield of issues around violence, the abuse of mentally retarded people, workplace politics and ethics, while also thinking through her own memories, as a child, as a sexually awakening adolescent, and as an adult, 34 years old and single by choice.

Alternating incidents in her childhood, with the present, Faith learns more about her Self, from her un-remembered baby brother's death when she was 3, and her adolescent love, Josh, disabled with cystic fibrosis and to whom she gives her virginity as a gift, shortly before his death at 17. Her adult 'present' tense context in the novel, includes a severely clinically depressed, (and occasionally suicidal), best female friend, Carol, a younger sister who is getting breast implants as an engagement present from her fiance, a solid presence in her grandmother, Nonna, an almost absent father, and a mother always busy organizing meetings for grieving mother support groups. Her mother started such groups after Faith's baby brother drowns in the bath, and writes self-help books on grief, but Faith eventually comes to realize her mother wrote them for herself, as a way of dealing with her maternal guilt over her baby's death.

Carol, her social-worker friend from SISTAA, is somewhat obsessed with men and sex and thinks that a good fuck is all that women need to bring them happiness. However, good men, or even good fucks, are often hard to find and when Carol phones Faith in a suicidal mood, Faith confesses to having sex with a man they both remember as a joke, which manages to switch her from suicide to laughter.

Carol also begins a doomed-from-the-start relationship with a male lawyer who offers to provide pro-bono legal services for SISTAA, and who dabbles with pornography and Faith finds it difficult to have confidence in him, professionally or personally.

Late one night, after a few drinks at the pub with Carol (and a pair of lousy male companions), Faith accidentally runs her car over a stray nameless cat, and finds herself pouring out decades of previously unshed tears to the vet in an after-hours veterinary clinic. The Cat-With-No-Name is a crossroads and watershed for Faith's life. She wants to give the cat a decent burial, rather than have it incinerated by the clinic. The vet, Caleb, promises to bury the cat at his sister's place in the hills.

As the romance sub-plot with Caleb develops, and sharing of life's scars, physical and emotional, Faith finds herself explaining to him about her work, dealing with battered and hurt women, while Caleb deals with battered and hurt animals. Unlike Caleb, Faith has started to hate her job and what its doing to her, re-evaluating her other relationships, with her mother, sister, her co-workers and best friend and eventually leaves her job with SISTAA and takes on walking dogs. She has found a job she likes, and a man she can love and be loved by in return.

Generally, the episodic stories of Faith's clients, along with the other characters in Faith's personal life, are depicted with enormous compassion. The novel gently draws readers' attention to the horrifying scale of violence against women, including pornography, rape and the reasons why women won't very often report it, self harm, and the attitudes of younger women towards men.

Joanne Fedler's writing style is a delight to read, although initially the unexpected flash-backs can appear unconnected, and the number of walk-on, walk-off characters may be confusing until we get to know them as individuals. Fedler often uses wry cynical observations of people and their attitudes, sometimes with a dry wit and black humour, which can be thought-provoking as well as entertaining. The scene of Faith and her sister on a sisterly shopping mall expedition for a new outfit for Faith's date, provides an opportunity for Faith to make many wry observations on the modern rituals of femininity, along with a more sober scene between Faith and Carol arguing over who between them, is the more fucked up and why.

Other examples include, the bubbly receptionist at SISTAA described as "a radiant human frangipani", urban poverty described "hanging around like a teenager with nothing better to do", observing a severely retarded young woman happy in her pregnancy resulting from rape, as "the happiest rape victim I've ever seen" and describing Faith's younger sister's excitement at receiving breast enhancement surgery as an engagement gift as "seriously fucked up".

Of some disappointment however, was Fedler's negative depictions of the lesbian characters, particularly her boss, Genevieve, at SISTAA. Also disappointing is the classic cliche fairytale happy ending with its message of needing to find a good man to be happy, and the poorly resolved male lawyer sub-plot, with Faith being blamed for misjudging him. The taking up of dog-walking as an alternative career path, also seemed somewhat implausible. However, these issues do not overly detract from an otherwise excellent novel, with a great deal to recommend it.