Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

When I read Helen Cullen’s debut novel The Lost Letters of William Woolf back in 2018 I commented that the real achievement of the book was the way she explored the dynamics of the relationship between William and his wife, Clare. It was a portrait of a marriage that had gone slightly astray because they had lost the ability to communicate openly and honestly about their feelings, hopes and ambitions.

The author repeats that feat – in fact, with even greater skill – in The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually. The book depicts the relationship between Maeve and Murtagh and, in particular, Maeve’s struggles with being the sort of mother to her four children she would like to be. In fact, to be the sort of person she would like to be.

Following the tragic events of the opening chapter, the reader is taken back in time to witness Maeve and Murtagh’s first meeting and the blossoming of their relationship. It’s not hard to understand what attracts Murtagh to the beautiful, spirited but mercurial Maeve, a budding actor. In reality though Maeve’s life is something of a performance. As she observes, ‘Here people see the theatre student, the vinyl collector, the poet, Murtagh’s girlfriend, the American, the actress; so many different things, and none of them are the sick girl, or the other far worse things we know some folks called me’.

When Murtagh is given the opportunity to pursue his career as a potter on Inis Óg, a small island off the coast of Galway in Ireland, it means Maeve giving up her own aspirations. It’s just one of the things that creates the first small fissures in Maeve’s mental state. Those fissures will gradually expand until the whole edifice comes crashing down. As the book progresses, we witness heartbreaking moments such as Maeve recording in her journal her ‘good’ days and ‘bad’ days and finding the second have become more numerous than the first. She worries about the impact the days when despair overwhelms her is having on her children, and on Murtagh in particular. ‘Murtagh is so loyal, he would never leave me. He would endure the challenge of living with me and my moods and my difficulties until the end of time if I let him.’

It leads her to take a decision born out of love but which won’t appear that way to her family. Just the opposite in fact. It’s only years later that some kind of understanding dawns, bringing together a family which has become fractured, resentful and distant from one another. I absolutely fell in love with Murtagh who is the most wonderful character. I felt I shared with him every moment of joy, every moment of grief and silently cheered when he reflected, ‘There was room in his life for one more dream, maybe.’

If this is making it sound like a story of interminable sadness, I can reassure you it is not. There are moments of humour too and the book ends on the most wonderfully uplifting note. I’m not ashamed to admit I shed a few tears at some of the sadder moments but also got slightly misty-eyed at the end. I thought The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually was wonderful and I’m so glad I finally got around to reading it.

The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually by Helen Cullen is about an Irish couple and the family they go on to have together and the impact of the mother's mental illness on the whole family.

The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually is the first book I have read by Helen Cullen. I am absolutely stunned by her talent and this beautiful book just about broke my heart. I was transfixed and transported to the island of Inis Óg and felt like I was looking through the window as the story unfolded. Sometimes I had to tear my eyes away as the depths of emotion evoked were overwhelming.

Murtagh Moone and Maeve Morelli are pretty much chalk and cheese but they say opposites attract. Murtagh a potter and Maeve an actress from America. They meet in college and set about a life together and go on to have four children and settle in the island setting of Inis Óg. Maeve suffers with her mental health and this is handled eloquently in this book. A tragedy occurs that rocks this family to the core. An unravelling if you will and then a putting back together.


A story of family, mental health and being broken and put back together. There is a chapter in the book called Kintsugi and this is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery using gold for example. The philosophy being that it is OK and that the breaks should not be hidden away.

The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually broke me and put me back together again. The writing accomplished and not a stray word or thought. Helen Cullen writes with great care and empathy and the island setting was a mesmerising backdrop to this story of the Moone family.

Honestly I can't rate this book highly enough, it was wonderful.

This was the perfect book for a therapist to read. It’s a family story, full of complex relationships and the experience of parenting. I was drawn into Moone family life straight away, because the author crafts all these characters brilliantly. Added to the tension and sense of claustrophobia is the family’s home on a remote island where your siblings have to become your best friends, and you can’t really escape one another. The whole family come together to celebrate the eldest daughter’s ‘milestone’ birthday. We soon see that there is a huge fracture in the centre of this family - their mother died many years before and it’s clear that some members of the family coped with this better than others. As circumstances force the family to look back to that time and how they coped it’s clear there are issues that were never fully discussed and feelings that were buried so deep that the individual has never fully faced up to their loss and grief. Now the family have two choices - to go their separate ways and continue to bury their pain, or to face up to it and resolve it together.

The grief of their mother’s loss is so raw and beautifully rendered by the author that I was reading with a lump in my throat. The family must work through their loss, but also long held feelings of betrayal, anger and abandonment. This writer is clearly psychologically astute and I completely believed in these characters and their emotional lives. I really enjoyed the way the author marked the difference in time from the present day back to when their mother was alive. She uses layers of description for their surroundings and clever little hints about how these character’s lifestyles have changed. She’s also created a commentary on the radical changes in Ireland economically and socially. This novel was haunting, intelligent, emotional but also incredibly uplifting.

A heartbreakingly beautiful family saga that spans nearly four decades -- and an exploration of love, grief and hope.

Set mostly on Inis Óg, it begins with. the Moone family set for a celebration - however, they're instead broken by a tragedy. Murtagh Moone is a potter and devoted husband to Maeve, an American actor struggling with her most challenging role yet as mother to their four children.

Murtagh tries to hold his family close, as he shares with them the story of himself and Maeve, from the moment they meet outside Trinity College in Dublin, through to the rest of their love story.

I was completely captivated by the book, as well as the story of Murtagh and Maeve - although I was sobbing by the end of it all.

The tiny Irish island of Inis Og forms the perfect backdrop for this beautifully written and sweeping tale of love and loss; Helen Cullen’s second novel, The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually,

Maeve and Murtagh meet and fall in love at University, then settle on the island, where Murtagh continues to develop his skills as a potter. As the novel progresses through the years we see how Maeve struggles with her mental health and how her husband and 4 children try to help her while also trying to make sense of her dark times in their own individual ways.

One Christmas Eve tragedy strikes, resulting in both physical and emotional distances opening up between the family members as they try to piece their lives back together. I was left wondering if they would ever find their way back to each other, rebuild their relationships and in some cases, return to the island, which held so many of their memories.

Maeve and Murtagh’s love story is completely absorbing from the first page to the last, and I fell in love with both characters immediately. The portrayal of Maeve’s depression is handled very sensitively, and I cared deeply for Maeve’s health and for the impact it was having on her loved ones. But it was the ending that I thought was a particular tour de force. I found it to be pretty unexpected but absolutely wonderful and fitting and perfect! I cried so many tears!!

This is, once again, not a book I could zip through quickly. It’s emotional, sometimes heart-wrenching and tense, but always completely captivating. Significant political events are threaded through the narrative, some of which I felt compelled to research before continuing with the book. Clever parallels are drawn between the Moone family’s story and the Japanese art of Kintsugi (which involves repairing broken pottery and treating the breakage and repair as part of the history of the object rather than as something to disguise), which gave me further pause for thought.

I can safely say, though, that the time investment was 100% worth it – it’s definitely not a story that I’ll forget in a hurry.

This was such an excellent read. From the start I just knew I was going to love it and I did. Totally different to the type of book I usually read.

The Truth Must Gradually Dazzled definitely dazzled, with its wonderful narrative and examination of a family built on love and the darkness of mental illness.

The Moone families guiding light was the wonderfully complicated Maeve. On the surface fun, outgoing, a magnet to all around her, but as would be husband Murtagh discovered Maeve had a dark side, one that swallowed her up and dogged her relentlessly.

Cullen’s great skill was her ability to go inside Maeve’s mind, the agony and anguish leapt from the pages, the constant thoughts that she was never good enough both as a wife and a mother. You felt the suffocation of the darkness that often engulfed her, the imaginary brick wall that blocked her means of escape, but you also admired her coping mechanism, the requisite medication thrown out the window in favour of exercise, of busyness. I couldn’t help but feel that Cullen was representing women and, indeed men everywhere, that she truly got to the very essence of mental illness and in some ways it resonated with my own past struggles with mental health. In particular her role as a mother, rang so true, the expectation that it was an all encompassing love and total giving up of oneself, yet you held something back, if only to preserve some form of your own identity, afraid of the dependance another human being had over you.

Murtagh, her husband, was her rock, a man who tried and failed to understand, but accepted her for who she was, gave her the space she needed, loved unconditionally. Cullen showed a man marred by tragedy, almost stuck in a time warp, unwilling to move forward, afraid the wall he built around him would open wounds and feelings he couldn’t deal with.

Cullen gave us their four children, all so wonderfully different, their coping mechanisms varied and with varying degrees of success and failure. It was Nollaig, the eldest, that for me, encapsulated so well the ramifications of tragedy, the responsibility she felt to care for her brothers and sisters, to look after her father. She maintained the status quo, as Cullen showed a woman unwilling to change just in case, as time stood still and you waited patiently for the crash that you knew had to come.

The shift between the past and the present was seamless, the structure of the novel almost like a diary, a catalogue of a family as it navigated life, flash points that sparked events, individual reactions. You sensed it was building towards something as characters dangled over a cliff edge, their fall imminent, and indeed Cullen surprised me, took the novel to somewhere I didn’t see, the hints hidden so carefully.

Now Cullen, could so easily have set this novel in your average, town, city but she chose to take us to the small island of Inis Og. It offered a rugged landscape, the crashing of the sea against the cliffs, the isolation that so perfectly reflected the bleakness of Maeve’s mental health. The small community, lives led in each others pockets magnified the bad times, cast the spotlight on those involved, left them exposed with no place to hide. But it also showcased a community that pulled together, that enjoyed the good times, closed around and protected its inhabitants.

I really did not want to leave Inis Og, or the Moone family, so brilliantly had Cullen, engulfed me in their lives. I admit to shedding tears, to being so moved by one particular scene that I had to take a moment, to put the book down and reflect. It was a novel that resonated, that had feeling and just wonderful storytelling.

This is an evocative and complicated read which takes a long look at a family across 37 years. It examines motherhood, marriage, sibling and parental relationships, love, mental health issues, unfulfilled ambition, loss and grief. The list goes on! The overall tone is a calm, quiet one. Despite the raw emotions which you see, there is little anger in the book. There is compassion and genuine selfless love.

You know from the start how things are going to work out. It is a shock. As you then go back in time and learn how Murtagh and Maeve met, you find them both to be well drawn and arresting characters. This feels like a bittersweet tale which alternates between forgiveness and guilt. When you see the effect of Maeve's condition on her children, your heart sinks for them, but then you see how they grow up and find their own way to cope. The most striking features for me are when you hear Maeve's thoughts through her diary and letters. This is a well written, emotional read which leaves you with food for thought. Highly recommended.

In short: A bittersweet look at a family
Thanks to the publisher for a copy of the book

Thank you to Netgalley, Penguin - Michael Joseph and Helen Cullen for this ARC in return for my honest review. A stunning book that deserves to be shared with others. It has my full recommendation. The characters, story, setting and descriptions were all carefully crafted into this work of art. Simply sublime!

It's taken me several attempts to write this review. I found some of this book so raw and personal, it shook me to the core

The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually is a great love story told in two parts. In fact, it's almost two books, of two love stories, each as intense and moving as the other. The first half tells the story of Murtagh and Maeve, from their meeting as bohemian students to family life on a remote Irish island through Maeve's battle with severe mental illness. The second half follows Murtagh as he deals with his great love's suicide, finding himself again and unexpected new love

Murtagh and Maeve's relationship is breathtaking in its intensity. It's tender, consuming and achingly sad. Helen Cullen captures the darkness and realities of anxiety and depression so vividly, as someone who has also had this struggle, it was difficult to read at times. The impact on the family is also striking and honest, particularly as their four children grow older

The second half is equally as touching as following the loss of Maeve, the family splinter as they deal with things in their own way. Despite covering a large span of time in not a huge amount of pages, each character is incredibly well drawn and individual, I could imagine each one perfectly. The second great love story is equally as moving and beautiful, inspiring hope, tolerance and acceptance

With a stunningly atmospheric setting, The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually is highly emotive, raw, and at times achingly sad. Yet there's beauty, tenderness and hope in this book too. It made a huge impact on me and I'll be thinking about it for a long time to come

The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually is undoubtedly one of my favourite reads this year. This novel whisks you off to the beautiful country of Ireland and has you hooked after the first couple of chapters.

The book starts with the Moone family on the idyllic isle of Inis Ôg and we learn of a tragedy on Christmas Eve in 2005 that rocks the family to their core. We are then swiftly taken back to the 70’s, dropped into the City of Dublin and learn how Murtagh Moone, a trained potter, met Maeve Morelli, an actor from Williamsburg outside Trinity College. Maeve has demons and despite being madly in love with Murtagh, dark shadows envelope her happiness, as we learn of her mental health and the reason why she left America.

The writing cleverly weaves readers through 30 years of time, from the day they first met, to Maeve opening up to Murtagh, how they deal with this as a couple and how this then impacts their family life, her role as a mother and the children who love and depend on her. 

This book is about the power of love and grief and the demons that we sometimes can’t shake off. It’s raw and difficult to read at times. It addresses topics that are hard to broach but at the same time, Helen Cullen has made it engaging. I could feel the highs and the lows and I was left hanging on every chapter wanting to learn more about the Moone family. You could feel the unconditional love Murtagh has for Maeve, the desperation to help her and although he tried to understand, he never fully could. 

This book took me by surprise in many ways. I really liked Helen’s writing style, her descriptions made you feel like you were there and living it with the Moone family and I can’t wait to read whatever she writes next.

Thank you so much to @michaeljbooks for organising the blog tour and for the digital copy of this book.

This review goes live on my blog, Twitter and Instagram on Saturday 1st of August as part of the blog tour. I will add it to Amazon and Goodreads, once it has posted.

As the Moone family prepare to celebrate Christmas a tragedy strikes, leaving them with a terrible loss that they need to learn to live with. As they come to terms with the heart ripping event, the reader is transported back to 1978, to the day when Murtagh Moone meets his future wife Maeve.

This book is one of those stories that stay with you long after you have finished. You leave it behind, feeling emotionally spent. The author writes so beautifully, you find yourself completely invested in the characters, hoping for a beautiful outcome. But life, isn't like that, and Cullen shows the reality of mental health and how it can destroy a family built with love, trust and happiness. When tragedy strikes within the book, it's highly emotional and you know right from the beginning where the story will end. But then light appears as the family finally learn to live with the change they never realised was coming.

One of the aspects, I really enjoyed was that it is a historical novel, it dealt with an era I rarely find in books. Cullen brings the 70's and 80's back to life with vim and vigour.

The setting for the book is magical. The tiny Irish island the family move to, is like a land from the past. No cars, one pub, very few shops and a tiny village where everyone knows your business. A stunning setting to live in, but not one to make life easy for someone suffering with severe mental health problems. The ending completely surprised me and I was annoyed with myself for not seeing the subtle signs placed throughout the plot.

Helen Cullen is fast becoming a favourite author of mine. Her writing is so descriptive and almost poetic in nature. She builds a world for you to immerse yourself in. She gently leads you through a complex and harrowing situation that takes place over a thirty year period. Helen Cullen has shown she isn't a one hit wonder. Her writing has developed, showing that she can write about anything and hold your complete attention. I loved her first book, The Letter of William Wolf, but I absolutely adored this one.

The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually is a lovely, passionate and sad novel that is all about the Moone family. It takes place in Ireland over a period of roughly 40 years, from when Murtagh and Maeve met in Dublin, their marriage and the tragedy that tore the family apart.

The first part of the novel concerned Maeve and Murtagh, you saw how both of them got to know each other, fall in love and also her illness. I know nothing at all about her condition but I really appreciated how the author showed the affect it had on her and her family. As you read more, after the events on Christmas Eve 2004, the focus switched to the Moone children, how they dealt with their loss and felt about being in their childhood home.

One of the reasons I liked this novel so much, was that there was no wrong way. In today’s society it is easy to judge and criticise. But with the four children, now adult, and Murtagh, they all coped with their grief in different ways. Not always right for each other, but right for the individual. I liked all of them but the two I felt more for were Murtagh and Mossy. It is difficult to say why, apart from I felt that both of them seemed much warmer characters. Especially Mossy the only one who had a family of his own.

The book has inspired me to read The Lost Letters of William Woolf as quickly as possible.

When ceramic artist, Murtgah Moone meets American actress, Maeve Morelli in 1978, outside Trinity College in Dublin, life for both of them is changed forever. Maeve, quirky and bold, and filled with a zest for life seems the perfect compliment to stoical and placid, Murtagh and yet, behind the facade, Maeve is battling her own dark demons.

Fated to be together, Murtagh and Maeve settle into family life on the beautiful, but remote, Irish island of Inis Óg where Maeve raises their four children and Murtagh makes his living as a talented potter. Life seems perfect until one Christmas Eve in 2005, when life for the Moone family is changed forever.

The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually is one of those slow moving but beautifully succinct novels which takes you into the very fabric of family life, revealing cracks which even the Moone's didn't realise were appearing in Maeve's life. Such huge divisions will tear the family apart and make them question everything they thought they knew about Maeve, both as a lover and life companion to Murtagh, and devoted mother to Nollaig, Dillon,Tomás and Sive.

The author picks up the slow pace of island life quite perfectly, nothing much seems to happen and yet, the story is all the more mesmerising because of its slowness. It's beautifully introspective concentrating on thoughts and feelings whilst at the same time bringing snippets of everyday life into sharp focus and touching on mental health issues with compassion and sensitivity.

The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually is a thoughtful family drama which captures your heart and lingers in your mind long after the last page is turned.

Helen Cullen is the author of last year’s bestseller The Lost Letters of William Wolf, that I was totally capitaved by, so I jumped at the chance to read her second novel, The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually. This book starts on Christmas Eve 2005, on the Irish Island Ines Óg, when the Moone family suffer a tragedy that will change their lives forever and fracture their family. The plot then goes back to when Maeve ane Murtagh meet in Dublin, fall in love and move to the beautiful Ines Óg where Murtag works as a potter. We follow their story, the birth of their children, their ups and downs that ultimately conclude on that fatal night in 2005 and it’s lasting effects. A poignant tale of love, loss, family and forgiveness this is an wonderful and emotive read.

At the moment the subject of mental health is very much at the forefront of our society, with more understanding and help than ever before. The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually is an honest, raw and powerful portrait of how mental health can effect a family as well as the individual, at a time before it was really understood or talked about. Maeve is at the heart of this story, a drama student, feminist, wife and mother who is always followed by what she calls an ‘Old Crow’. The honesty and empathy in Helen Cullen’s writing of Maeve’s depression broke my heart; the image painted was powerful. I think many readers will identify with some of Maeve’s experiences as she questions herself as a wife, a mother and role model for her children. But what I found just as moving was how Helen Cullen then showed how this effected Murtagh, and their children Nollaig, twins Mossy and Dillon and Sive as well; how it ould disrupt their lives, always tryng to gauge the mood of the house, and having others calling their mother ‘mad’.

Like The Lost Letters of William Wolf this is a very character driven novel, and Maeve, Murtagh and their family really got under my skin in a good way. Murtagh and Maeve are soulmates, and Murtagh blames himelf for bringing Maeve to the small desolate Island where she had to give up her acting dream to become a wife and mother. His love for Maeve shines through this book, his empathy and tenderness towards her when she is unwell is really touching. He is also a natural father, making sure his children are looked after epecially during Maeve’s illness. All four of the children are aware of their mother’s depression, but there is a lack of conversation around it, their father trying to protect them actually does more harm and causes more resentment. Little does he realise that his family are as fragile as the pots he makes in the kiln, and that it can fracture at any time. Helen Cullen’s focus on the family, showing how destructive mental illness can be, is refreshing and authentic.

This book is not all dark, there is plenty of light and humour along the way, especially when the children were growing up. The beautiful and rugged landscape of Ines Óg, with it’s craggy rocks, beautiful flowers and green landscape is a stunning setting for this book. Helen Cullen includes the social and cultural ways of the islanders, their suspicion of strangers, their old wives tales, the weekly dances enjoyed by Maeve’s eldest daughter Nollaig and most importantly the sense of community. Love and romance, is also an important part of this book in it’s many different guises; familial, romance and friendship, all of which have the power to help heal and bring people together; the glue that will hold the Moones together.

The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually is a story of tragedy, loss but also hope. Helen Cullen’s portrait of a family dealing with mental illness and loss is authentic, raw but perfectly done. I am not someone who cries at books as a rule, but I have to say I found the end of this book so moving I had a tear run down my cheek. This is a breathtaking and inspiring read and one that is going to stay with me for quite a while; simply stunning!!

Murtaugh and Maeve meet as students in Dublin, where he is studying ceramics and she has come from the US to do a course in drama. So begins an epic love story with a dark undercurrent, for Maeve suffers from debilitating periods of deep depression when she completely shuts down. They take a risk and marry, she giving up her potential career as an actress to move with him to a wild island off the coast of Galway, where he can pursue his dream of becoming a successful potter. Here they raise four children, and Maeve struggles to keep a hold on everyday life, but tragedy awaits and the family must find a way to move forward.
The first part of the book was very engaging as the couple’s relationship develops and they struggle to hold their new life together. The effect of Maeve’s devastating illness and her terrible struggle with it is well portrayed and deeply moving, and the happier times shine out from the pages. The beautiful, simpler lifestyle of the small Irish community really comes alive. The second half of the book looks at the four children grown up and the aftermath of their mother’s decline, and here I felt it lost its edge, skimming over the lifestyle choices of the younger generation and giving Murtaugh a new beginning that I found rather jarring. A well-written and moving story that lost its way a little towards the end.

This was such a gorgeous book on grief. I loved the slight nods to Virginia Woolf through the book, and the setting and themes also reminded me slightly of The Gloaming.

I thought this book was incredibly moving, and a realistic portrayal of different manifestations of grief across different family members who have all experienced the same - and slightly different - losses. Five stars.

The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually by Helen Cullen

The Moone family - Maeve, Murtagh and their four children - live on an island off Galway, Ireland. After a tragic event, the story unfolds of Maeve and Murtagh meeting each other, their life together and beyond.

Wow, what a book! I loved everything about it and finished it in a day. I loved the Moone family and couldn't put the book down as I wanted to find out how it all turned out for them. The range of issues covered in the book is breath-taking and they are all written about with such sensitivity and thought, humour and heartbreak. What an incredible writer Helen Cullen is! I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers Michael Joseph for an ARC of this book.