Description

Discover the emotional, bestselling novel about four generations of women and the stories that bind them, from the Booker longlisted author Of Strange Flowers.

‘One of the finest novelists writing today… a haunting, exquisite masterpiece.’ RACHEL JOYCE

‘Endlessly surprising and incredibly moving’ DAVID NICHOLLS

‘Beautiful, compassionate … Donal Ryan at his inimitable best.’ MAGGIE O’FARRELL

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The Aylward women are mad about each other, but you wouldn’t always think it.

You’d have to know them – in spite of what neighbours might say about raised voices and dramatic scenes – to know that that their house is a place of peace, filled with love, a refuge from the sadness and cruelty of the world.

The head of the family, Nana, is a woman who has buried two sons and whose life has been the family farm.

Her daughter-in-law, Eileen, is estranged from her own parents, having ‘shamed’ them and given birth to Saoirse.

And then there’s Saoirse herself, eavesdropping on lives she cannot comprehend.

It is only when they must battle for the inheritance of Dirt Island – a narrow strip of land adjacent to Eileen’s childhood home – that they truly understand the roots that bind their lives together.

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‘The prose drips like honey off a spoon’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘Beautifully poised, sad, poetic and human….I loved every single line.’ IAN RANKIN

‘A generous mosaic of a novel about the staying power of love and pride and history and family’ COLUM McCANN

‘His paragraphs are unnoticeably beautiful, his heart always on show’ ANNE ENRIGHT

‘A life-enhancing talent’ SEBASTIAN BARRY

‘I would struggle to think of any other Irish author working today who writes with as much compassion as Donal Ryan’ LOUISE O’NEILL

Publisher Review

This is a generous mosaic of a novel about the staying power of love and pride and history and family. While Donal Ryan is never afraid of "all the meanness and sorrow of the world," he also manages to excavate the thrilling beauties that hold us together. He manages, with wit and grace, to illuminate the anonymous corners of human experience and get at the underworld of our souls. * COLUM McCANN * Donal Ryan is one of the finest novelists writing today and this is a gem of a novel. Full of humanity, humility, humour, drama and mystery, his characters are so vivid you feel they are sitting outside, waiting for him to conjure them to life. He writes with grace and precision, with love indeed, about who we are and why, about family history and the ghosts we carry. A haunting, exquisite masterpiece. * RACHEL JOYCE * From its opening pages, this book exerts a quiet, propulsive hold over its reader. The three generations of Aylward women will break your heart and then put it back together again. It's a beautiful, compassionate novel - Donal Ryan at his inimitable best. * Maggie O'Farrell * Beautifully poised, sad, poetic and human....I loved every single line. * IAN RANKIN * Ryan's writing is so musical, so easily heard, that your eyes will dance through its pages. * Joanna Cannon, Guardian Book of the Day *