Product Description

Evacuated from Blitz-battered London, shy and genteel Elizabeth White is sent to stay with the boisterous O'Connors in Kilgarret, Ireland. It is the beginning of an unshakable bond between Elizabeth and Aisling O'Connor, a friendship which will endure through twenty turbulent years of change and chaos, joy and sorrow, soaring dreams and searing betrayals. Writing with warmth, wit and great compassion, Maeve Binchy tells a magnificent story of the lives and loves of two women, bound together in a friendship that nothing could tear asunder - not even the man who threatened to come between them forever.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12632 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 608 pages

From the Publisher
A timeless bestseller from the author of Circle of Friends

From the Back Cover
Evacuated from Blitz-battered London, shy and genteel Elizabeth White is sent to stay with the boisterous O'Connors in Kilgarret, Ireland. It is the beginning of an unshakeable bond between Elizabeth and Aisling O'Connor, a friendship which will endure through twenty turbulent years of change and chaos, joy and sorrow, soaring dreams and searing betrayals…

Writing with warmth, wit and great compassion, Maeve Binchy tells a magnificent story of the lives and loves of two women, bound together in a friendship that nothing can tear asunder – not even the man who threatens to come between them forever.

‘Binchy’s novels are never less than entertaining.
cover illustration by Sarah Perkins

Fiction
009949857X
£6.

About the Author
Maeve Binchy was born in Dublin, and went to school at the Holy Child Convent in Killiney. She took a history degree at UCD and taught in various girls' schools, writing travel articles in the long summer holidays. In 1969 she joined the Irish Times and for many years she was based in London writing humorous columns from all over the world. She is the author of five collections of short stories as well as twelve novels including Circle of Friends, The Copper Beech, Tara Road, Evening Class and The Glass Lake. Maeve Binchy is married to the writer Gordon Snell and they live in Dalkey, Dublin.

Customer Reviews

Heartwarming
This book has to be one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. The friendship portrayed within its pages is heartwarming and it is so wonderfully evoked. If there is one thing that Maeve Binchy can do, it is to create character and mood like no one else. You really feel lost when you finish the last sentence.
The only bad thing about this book is that when you've read it, it's over.

One of the few books I would willingly pick up to re - read!!
Read this if you can!!!

Irish life
This book reminds me so well of the many holidays - especially Christmasses - that I have spent in Ireland. The descriptions of rural family life are brilliant, and as a solitary English girl whose best friend is the oldest of 7 Irish children, I found the relationship between Elizabeth and Aisling totally convincing. When I first visited Ireland - many years ago now - I was overwhelmed by the difference of it all, the Catholicism, the huge families, the social networks which (as a child of suburban London) I had never experienced. I still love Ireland, and this novel was full of the reasons why. It does deal with issues - domestic violence, divorce, alcoholism - which dispel the myth of Ireland as a utopian paradise, but it still manages to be a really good story, and one which you don't want to end - is there a sequel? I would love to know what happened to the girls in the end.

A Riveting Read, a great mix of humour and emotion
One not to be missed by any Meave Binchy fan, or anyone else for that matter. You will go from laughing to crying and back to laughing so many times. A really great read not to be missed. One of her best! Once started you can't put it down.