A Beautiful Loan

From one of the finest Irish writers today comes a heart-breaking and hopeful novel following a woman's life and relationships, as well as her discovery of self.

'Mary Costello is a writer of a rare and exquisite sensitivity - intimate, piercing, death-haunted - with sentences that can turn on a pin into vastness' - PAUL LYNCH

My name is Anna, and for some time now, I have been trying to account for certain events in my life - my adult life, that is - which, from this vantage point of forty-five years, I often find baffling . . .

In 1985 Dublin, nineteen-year-old Anna Hughes is in thrall to Peter Gallagher, an older, worldly man. Anna is new to the city, introverted and naïve, and Peter's experience, wide circle of friends and thirst for adventure captivate her. Her obsessive longing for him leads to marriage and, eventually, a crushing betrayal.

As Anna's life becomes less predictable, she uncovers deeper layers of herself. Her journey gives an intimate portrait of a woman embracing herself as she is, and claiming the life she yearns for.

'It is rare that a writer of fiction can evoke such depth of feeling and visceral/moral revulsion as Mary Costello' - JOYCE CAROL OATES