Mary Costello

A collection of twelve exquisite stories that explore how ordinary men and women endure the trials and complexities of life and the ripples of disquiet that lie beneath the surface. An elderly schoolteacher recalls the single act of youthful passion that changed her life forever; a young gardener has an unsettling encounter with a suburban housewife; a wife who miscalculated...

From the winner of the Irish Book of the Year Award comes this lyrical and quietly profound story of romance, family legacy and the enduring literary power of James Joyce. Thirty-four-year-old Luke O'Brien has left the city to live a quiet, bookish life on the River Sullane in County Waterford. Alone in his big house, he longs for a return...

Academy Street is the heart-breaking and evocative story of one woman's life spanning six decades. Tess's childhood in 1940's rural Ireland is defined by the sudden death of her mother. Later, in New York, she encounters the ferocious power and calamity of love, and the effects of catastrophic fate. The novel resonates with the rhythms of memory and home as...

In Barcelona, we meet a cast of characters who live turbulent inner lives. In a Spanish hotel room, a marriage unravels as a young wife is haunted by a past love. A father travels to Paris to meet his scientist son and is exposed to his son's true nature. A woman attends a reading by a famous author and comes...

THE IRISH TIMES BESTSELLER A marriage unravels in a Spanish hotel room as a young wife is haunted by a past love. A father travels to Paris to meet his scientist son and is exposed to his son's true nature. A woman attends a reading by a famous author and comes to some painful realisations about her own marriage. The...

Exquisitely written and profoundly moving-the new literary novel from an award-winning Irish author. 'An exceptional, compulsive novel of love, loss and courage. SINEAD GLEESON 'Mary Costello is a writer of rare and exquisite sensitivity' PAUL LYNCH 'One of our foremost women writers' GUARDIAN This is Anna's story. In Dublin in 1985, nineteen-year-old Anna Hughes is in thrall to Peter Gallagher,...