Irish Fiction

Times are hard in the village of Lissamore on Ireland's West Coast. So it's lucky that free-spirited Cat Gallagher knows a thing or two about breaking and entering.

A policeman's lot is not a happy one or so the song goes, but throw in the IRA, loyalist paramilitaries, the British army and a Republican hunger strike, and it gets a whole lot worse.

EVERY FAMILY HAS SECRETS. SOME ARE JUST BETTER AT HIDING THEIRS...

A family brought together by the person they said goodbye to long ago . . .

Set against the backdrop and turmoil of Indian Independence and the decline of the British Empire through to the swinging 1960s, this is the story of a young woman called Grace, who courageously navigates the trials and turbulence of her life and uncovers shocking family secrets. What are these secrets?

This is the most astonishing piece of writing, lyrical in its emotion and spare in its construction ... Toibin has crafted an unmissable read' Sunday Herald

This sharp and stylish biography redefines the woman George Bernard Shaw once described as `the greatest living Irishwoman' - Augusta Gregory.

It is impossible to read Toibin without being moved, touched and finally changed' Independent on Sunday

It is Ireland in the early 1950s and for Eilis Lacey, as for so many young Irish girls, opportunities are scarce. So when her sister arranges for her to emigrate to New York, Eilis knows she must go, leaving behind her family and her home for the first time.