This is a beautifully rooted book who’s narrator moves back home to an island off the cost of Ireland to recover after her marriage breaks down following the loss of her daughter
We watch as the narrator heals whilst she takes on the job of piloting a ferry between the island and the mainland .
Initially we know little about the missing teenager and this is revealed drip by drip by very short paragraphs appearing during the novel written from her point of view .I’m the version I read these sections were clearly demarcated by use of bold font and a different typeface.I quickly understood what these sections meant .They added an additional layer to the story which might have been missed if the story were told simply from the mother narrators point of view
Personally I would have liked a disclaimer explaining that the mixer of a young woman was involved as it was quite triggering for me and had I been aware I might not have chosen to read the novel in the first place .I spent the whole book wanting her to be found safe and well
The author writes with a clear easily read prose style and because of this I found it easy to read
I loved the cast of characters that we meet ok the island and found them all to be authentic and real people
I read an early copy of this novel on NetGalley uk the book is published in the uk on 4th may 2023 by Hodder and Staughton .Argus review is published in Goodreads Netgalkey and on my book blog bionicsarahsbooks.Wordpress.Com

The Island of Longing by Anne Griffin

Rosie Driscoll watches her daughter Saoirse cycle towards their house. She waits for the front door to slam, announcing her daughter's arrival.....but the slam never comes.....

When we meet Rosie, Saoirse has been missing for eight years. She should be twenty-five years old and instead she is a memory, a wondering, a campaign and in Rosie's heart, very much alive. Rosie's father asks her to come back to Roaring Bay, ostensibly to help him with running their ferry, Aoibhneas but really, he wants to give her something to help her to carry on.

The story moves between Rosie's return to Roaring Bay and the day that Saoirse disappeared and is beautifully written.

I couldn't put this one down.

A quietly moving, heartbreaking novel. I had tears running down my cheeks by the end of the book.

A 5 star read for me.

Thank you to @netgalley @hodderbooks and @annegriffinwriter for the opportunity to read and review this fantastic novel.

'The Island of Longing' will be published on the 4th of May 2023.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It made me cry bucket as it's heartbreaking and deals with grief and loss.
The author is a good storyteller and the characters are fleshed out.
Not the right book if you want something light but a good book.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

Another Anne Griffin and another good story. This one was a bit slow in places but given the eight years of grief and angst since their daughter went missing maybe that was a deliberate device. I enjoyed the story and recomend it to lovers of Irish writing and tales. With thanks to NetGalley, the publishers and the author for an e-ARC to read and review.

The Island of Longing by Anne Griffin

Rosie and Hugh's daughter has been missing for 8 years and the loss has taken its toll on their relationship and their son Cullie. Rosie goes to stay with her Dad on the island where she was born and brought up to help out.

I love Anne Griffin's writing and this book was no exception - WONDERFUL. Heartwarming and heartwrenching, I couldn't put it down. Very VERY highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

What a lovely book! Though i’m a fan of this author’s writing! It swept me away and carried me along on a journey both happy and sad! Longing is definitely the right word to include in the title. I longed for the right ending throughout.

Anne Griffin has such a unique writing style, you can't help but get swept away in it. This is a real heartbreaker, full of loss and longing. The loss that the Rosie experiences is unimaginable. The book really shows you how completely stuck families end up feeling in this situation, unable to truly move on. Absolutely beautiful.

A family member going missing is something no-one wants to contemplate. When a case hits the headlines, we hardly dare to imagine how the family is feeling as they live through such a nightmare. This is exactly what happens to Rosie and her family when her 17 year old daughter disappears moments after Rosie had watched her ride up to the house on her bike.

The story begins eight years after Saoirse’s disappearance, when Rosie returns to her home town to help her father run his ferry service for a few months while his troublesome back recovers. We travel back in time to learn how Rosie and the rest of the family, and indeed the investigating police, have dealt with the nightmare of wondering, not knowing, hoping, despairing. Then we continue forward in time towards a discovery.

Scattered throughout the story are teasing snippets about how Saoirse came to disappear between the pavement and her own front door, which adds to the tension and sense of foreboding.

Despite the subject matter, there are delightful moments of humour: much like in real life, ‘normality’ continues in and around unimaginable catastrophes.

The story isn’t about solving the mystery of what happened to Saoirse (which is only partially resolved), but about a family living through and beyond the mystery. It’s refreshingly different and very well done.

Anne’s debut When All is Said and Done left me a weeping mess for weeks after I’d read it – but in a good way (as booklovers will appreciate). In her third novel, she brings us into Rosie’s world. A mother, Rosie expects to hear her daughter Saoirse return home after heading into town. She never does. Almost a decade later, Rosie is still convinced her daughter is alive, even if no one else is so certain. Her father asks her to return home for the summer, to the island of Roaring Bay, and while she’s not exactly thrilled at the prospect, she hopes the vacation will bring some degree of solace. You can’t help but feel for Rosie and empathise with her certainty that she’ll see Saoirse again. Anne has such an ability to weave the emotional (funny and sad) through a story, one that cause you to push the book onto other readers. The vibrancy of the location too is captivating.

There is something incredibly special about island life in Ireland. Irish islands have a magical, mythical quality that draw me in, so it was with great pleasure that I read the latest and Griffin book.

I am already a fan of Anne Griffin having read her previous two wonderful novels. Griffin has a way of describing characters, who are uniquely Irish, and recognisable as such immediately. This book takes place between Dublin and a small island in the south of Ireland. Rosie and her husband are going through every parents worst nightmare which is that their child is missing.

The story goes back and forth in time and place, and we get a glimpse into the missing child’s experience, which adds so much emotion.

Everything about this novel is crafted so beautifully. The island characters are just so fantastic and even the name of the boat is an ingenious choice. It goes without saying that I adored this novel. Griffin is one of Ireland’s greatest storytellers.

Heartbreaking but a beautifully written story about family, loss and grief. It made me cry on places and there are not a lot of books that do that to me, Thanks for the ARC!

"Rosie watched her 17 year old daughter Saoirse cycle into town, expecting to hear the slam of the door when she returned a few hours later. But the slam never came."
Saoirse Driscoll's bike is found abandoned next to the hedge outside their house, eight years on, her family are still waiting, her Mother Rosie in particular, has never waivered in her hope that Saoirse is out there, still alive, and will return to her family fold.
Rosie goes home to Roaring Bay Island, off West Cork to her family home. Here she skippers the family owned ferry, transporting passengers to and from the mainland. Roaring Bay is where Rosie feels most at peace, it’s where she feels most connected to Saoirse, clinging on to the many memories she has of here of her daughter.
This book is so beautifully written, utterly gut wrenching and will have you in tears, and every page is worth it.
Written with such compassion and portraying Rosie's turmoil with such empathy, Anne Griffin has really done justice to the heartache too many Irish families are still living with as a result of missing family members.
Thanks to Net Galley and Hodder and Stoughton for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A beautiful, sad,funny, heartbreaking, life affirming tale of loss and love in all it's forms. Griffin has a way of getting to the heart of a person without going on and on and letting us have out own thoughts on a situation. A daughter goes missing one day and eight years later the wounds are as raw as ever . It is only the island that seems able to provide some solace to Risue, the mother, but it's complicated. A wonderful book by a consistently brilliant writer.

I really enjoyed this book. I've read all of Anne's books and thoroughly enjoyed them. I found this story to be filled with alot of emotions. Love, sadness, hope and frustration. I love the setting of Roaring Bay and the sense of home that it brought Rosie. I love how she could feel Saoirse by her side and how we got to feel her presence all around. This story is beautifully written, and I really liked the community of Roaring Bay. Overall I enjoyed this book and would recommend.

This was the first book I have read by this author and I really enjoyed it. The writing was engaging the story was compelling and the characters were well developed.
I found the pacing a bit slow at times but overall I enjoyed it.

A heartbreaking and powerful novel about a family whose daughter disappears before their eyes and how they cope with the unknown and try to stay connected as a family.

I liked how the author approached this novel, it a story of a mother who won’t allow herself to give up hope, while the book allows us glimpses of the mystery into the girls disappearance, it focuses more on the grieving family and and how life carries on around them. Hugh and Rosie are at odds after years of waiting for news of their missing daughter. Rosie returns to her place of birth, a quiet and peaceful Island off the coast of Ireland where her father runs the ferry company and she feels a connection with her missing daughter.

This is a quiet but beautifully written novel, and while it’s not a mystery, it does deal with the heartbreaking family tragedy that for any parent is unimaginable. We encounter a family at their most vulnerable moments and don’t even want to contemplate what our reactions would be. I loved the sense of time and place in this move, and the small island is really like another character in the story. It’s a novel with splashes of humour and some likeable characters.

I enjoyed the read my thank to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

I have loved Anne Griffin’s other books and was really looking forward to this. Unfortunately it was a little bit slow and a tad tedious for me. Rosie and Hugh’s daughter goes missing one afternoon when she is seventeen. Rosie was brought up on an island where she and her father worked the ferry. Rosie moved to Dublin with her husband and had two children. After a breakdown after her daughter goes missing and her mother dies, Rosie returns to the island to run the ferry as her father’s health deteriorates and feels closer to her missing daughter than ever.

This is a lovely book of island life, friendship and community but just lacked the “gripping” element for me to think it was fantastic. That said, if you want a pleasant read, despite the subject, this is a book for you.

What an utterly beautiful, totally heartbreaking story.

One day, after a minor row, Saoirse Driscoll, goes missing. We join the story some eight years later as Saoirse's mother, Rosie, has returned to her birth place to help her father run the ferry between Roaring Bay Island and the mainland. Rosie has come home after a breakdown both mental and marital. She has come to find some peace while she wants for Saoirse to come back to her family.

There are several threads to the story that includes brief looks at Saoirse's view of the day she went missing. Rosie not only has to contend with trying to convince everyone her daughter is still alive but also the recent death of her mother, keeping her ailing father and his job as captain of the ferry going all while trying to give herself some peace of mind.

The characters Anne Griffin gives us are all expertly drawn. They have real life to them. We feel everything Rosie feels from despair and confusion to hope and an unwillingness to lie down and give up.

This is my first Anne Griffin. It most certainly won't be my last. The book itself is easy reading but not easy subject matter. I had to constantly slow my reading down because it is such a shame to rush through such a beautiful book.

Highly recommended.

When All Is Said is one of my favourite ever books and The Island of Longing is written is a similar heartbreaking way. Rosie's daughter went missing eght years ago when she was 17 years old but Rosie is determined that Saiorse still lives and will return when she is ready. Over the years friction between Rosie and her husband Hugh grows and after her mother dies Rosie is persuaded by her father to return home and to her first love, the family-owned ferry.

If you love Irish stories then this one will not disappoint. A moving tale of loss and redemption, written with great skill and empathy. Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton/Sceptre for the opportunity to read and review The Island of Longing.

A difficult and emotional theme of a long-missing child and the effect on the family, especially the central character, Rosie. Unable to accept that her daughter is anything but alive and simply lost, despite the eight intervening years, Rosie returns to her childhood island home to resume her much loved role as captain of the family owned ferry. Her grief and longing are so deeply felt by the reader, but there is also humour and beautiful prose that elevates the story. The island is populated by wonderfully well drawn characters and I appreciated the emotional depth of this novel from beginning to end. Highly recommended 4.5 stars