Tara Road by Maeve-Binchy
Ria lived on Tara Road in Dublin with her dashing husband, Danny, and their two children. She fully believed she was happily married, right up until the day Danny told her he was leaving her to be with his young, pregnant girlfriend. By a chance phone call, Ria meets Marilyn, a woman from New England unable to come to terms with her only son's death and now separated from her husband. The two women exchange houses for the summer with extraordinary consequences, each learning that the other has a deep secret that can never be revealed. Drawn into lifestyles vastly differing from their own, at first each resents the news of how well the other is getting on. Ria seems to have become quite a hostess, entertaining half the neighborhood, which at first irritates the reserved and withdrawn Marilyn, a woman who has always guarded her privacy. Marilyn seems to have become bosom friends with Ria's children, as well as with Colm, a handsome restaurateur, whom Ria has begun to miss terribly. At the end of the summer, the women at last meet face-to-face. Having learned a great deal, about themselves and about each other, they find that they have become, firmly and forever, good friends. A moving story rendered with the deft touch of a master artisan, Tara Road is Maeve Binchy at her very best--utterly beautiful, hauntingly unforgettable, entirely original, and wholly enjoyable. From the Hardcover edition.
Maeve Binchy was born in Dalkey, Ireland, in 1940. She went to school at the Holy Child Convent, Killiney, then attended University College, Dublin where she gained a BA in History. After graduation, she taught at several girls' schools and wrote in the holidays. She started her writing career as a journalist on the Irish Times, after her parents sent in the letters she had written while abroad travelling and the newspaper published them. At first a columnist, she later became Women's Editor, then turned to feature reporting and moved to London, where she met her husband Gordon Snell, a BBC presenter and author of children's books. Her first novel, Light a Penny Candle (1982) was an instant hit in the UK and abroad, much to her own surprise: 'When I wrote my first book... hand on my heart, I thought only Irish people would read it. I didn't think anyone else would be interested in the problems of people in dull, wet places'. But her trademark portraits of Irish contemporary society, combined with her warmth, wit and compassionate interest in people's lives, brought her a legion of devoted fans, and her books were translated into many languages. Her novels included Tara Road, which was selected for Oprah Winfrey's Book Club, and Circle of Friends (1995), which was adapted by Andrew Davies into a highly successful film starring Minnie Driver and Chris O'Donnell. She also wrote short story collections, non-fiction books and several plays, but preferred to be described simply as a storyteller, claiming that 'people think that novelists have style... I don't have any style. I don't write like Margaret Atwood or Fay Weldon, I don't write like anybody. I write as if I was talking. That has been useful to me. If you just talk away, that's where you're nearest the truth, nearest yourself. I write as if I was telling a story to a friend.' Maeve Binchy was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Book Awards in 1999, and the President of Ireland presented her with the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award at the Bord Gais Irish Book Awards in 2010. She died in 2012.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781552780015 |
| ISBN 10 | 1552780015 |
| Title | Tara Road |
| Author | Maeve Binchy |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Mcarthur And Co. |
| Year published | 1998-01-01 |
| Number of pages | 0 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |