Published by Coronet, Hodder & Stoughton
Publication Date: 13th April 2023 (paperback)
Book Description:
Carol is a divorced teacher living in a small town in Ireland, happy enough with the life she has. But a second chance at love brings her unexpected connection and joy. The new relationship with sparks local gossip: what does a woman like her see in a man like that? What happened to his wife who abandoned him all those years ago?
When Declan becomes ill, things start to fall apart. His children are untrusting and greedy, and Carol is made to leave their beloved home with its worn oak floors and elegant features and move back in with her parents.
Carol's mother is determined to get to the bottom of things, she won't see her daughter treated this way. It seems there are secrets in Declan's past, strange rumours that were never confronted and suddenly the house they shared takes on a more sinister significance.
In his gripping and darkly comic new novel Norton casts a light on the relationship between mothers and daughters, and truth and self-preservation with unnerving effect.
My Thoughts:
I have been hearing good things about Graham Norton's novels for some time now, but this is the first of his books I've actually sat down and read myself. I love the stark pink cover, and now having completed the book I find it interesting that this was the colour and style the publishers chose as I had a totally different image of what the story would be, purely based on the cover - that will teach me!! I was expecting to read the book with Graham's distinctive voice narrating in my head, however this was not the case. There are times where I got hints of phrases he might use in his TV and radio programmes, but this did not come across particularly strongly, as I have found happen previously with authors like Ruth Jones.
The first thing I noticed reading this book is the very strong sense of place; the reader really gets a feel for the small town in Ireland where the book is set as the descriptive writing is extremely well done, I felt. The characters are all very well constructed too, their physical features as well as their emotions are all nicely detailed without being over the top.
The book begins with former schoolteacher Carol preparing to move out of the house she has come to love as her home. It soon becomes clear that this move is not her choice, but that of her stepchildren who have decided to sell the house to pay for their father's care in a residential home as his dementia has gradually worsened. But Carol's parents have other ideas and won't see their daughter treated badly. Unbeknown to them, this decision could have knock-on effects which stand to change all their lives forever, and not in their favour!
Graham Norton has written a novel which will have you with tears of sadness in your eyes in one chapter, and those of laughter in the next. Carol's mother is a feisty Irish lady who will have you on her side in no time, despite her decisions being decidedly the wrong side of the law - but they are always underpinned with good intentions. She's a canny lady, and Carol would do well to learn some of her mother's more determined personality traits as she can be perhaps a little too soft at times. On the flip side, Declan's children are decidedly unpleasant (one of them moreso than the other we discover by the end) but I enjoyed Norton writing in a little bit of karma to even the balance just a touch.
This book was an absolute delight for me, I enjoyed the characters and the descriptions, the value placed on a family home by its various members and how the memories created within those walls gain importance as we lose those close to us. Maybe some of the events were a tad outside the realms of possibility but for me that's what fiction is all about: bending the rules just a smidgeon to make a good story even better. We have enough of real life so a little bit of "poetic license" is fine by me.
I will definitely be making room for more of Graham Norton's writing in the future.
About the Author:
Graham Norton, is an Irish comedian, actor, author, and television host known for his work in the UK. He is a five-time BAFTA TV Award winner for his comedy chat show The Graham Norton Show (2007–present).
Norton was educated at Bandon Grammar School in County Cork and then University College Cork, where he spent two years studying English and French in the 1980s, but did not complete his studies, but was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2013.
In 2016, Norton published his debut novel Holding, published by Hodder & Stoughton, about a murder in an Irish rural community. Norton won Popular Fiction Book of the Year award for Holding in the Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards 2016. In 2022, an adaptation of the book, directed by Kathy Burke, aired on ITV.
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