I had the absolute pleasure of hearing Caoilinn read a chapter from this beautiful book at The ROSBC Christmas Party and I was immediately captivated. She has a stunning way with words that whisks you away and firmly into whatever story she weaves.
Full rtc closer to publication date.

I was a huge fan of Caoilinn Hughes’ first novel, The Orchid and the Wasp, last year so was excited to see what she tackled next. Very different subject matter here, but her sublime writing and creation of fully rounded, warts-and-all, memorable characters are undiminished. This is a devastating story of a farming family in crisis, the father over-extending and then losing everything in the financial crash in Ireland, then brought to breaking point through illness and despair. We see two brothers engaged in a life-long duel (an unforgivable simplification, but one is a brash, go-getting type, absenting himself when the going gets tough, the other the dutiful son who hangs in there) and their responses to their parents’ dilemma. A sad, sad story of love, responsibility, and faith tested to the extreme, it is intense and completely immersive for the reader. Fabulous writing, I could quote a brilliant turn of phrase from every page and all of Dolly’s wonderful letters, but a couple of examples that stood out for me:

‘That’s what I saw I the mirror. My impotent, hairless, slackened, orphan self. The mirror was the way of my recalibration. It was wojous as an AA shindig or an AA bra tag on the unpinging.’

‘Just then, Shane tried to slink in rat-like at the back, but all the faces staring doorward made a hedgehog of him.’

A terrific read, I couldn’t recommend it more highly.