A Keeper: The Sunday Times Bestseller

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Finding that she has time on her own she decides to delve into her mother's past and the book switches between Elizabeth and Patrica's stories respectively. In doing so she finds some letters, written from her father to her mother right at the start of their relationship.

Don't even get me started on why we get a separate POV for Rosemary, it wasn't necessary and added nothing to the story. She is dealing w/the loss of her mom and also with her teen son, whose situation is complicated because she is raising him alone. The book was originally issued with a clear plastic cover which I assumed it was still in from the photo. Once again Graham Norton surprises me with his writing abilities in this well drawn story of small town Irish life and remote rural farming families.From the bestselling author of Holding comes a masterly tale of secrets and ill-fated loves set on the coast of Ireland. He is the host of the comedy chat show The Graham Norton Show and the BBC commentator of the Eurovision Song Contest. Stumbling across a small wooden box of letters penned to her mother in the early Seventies in response to a lonely hearts advert by the man she has been told is her father it provides her first opportunity to learn more about Edward Foley. Graham William Walker is an Irish actor, comedian, television presenter and columnist, known by his stage name Graham Norton. She didn't really stay in touch with her mother and even when she was dying didn't seem to see the need to be there.

She meets with her mother's best friend, Rosemary O'Shea, and those who knew her father and her griefstricken and disturbed grandmother. This was powerful storytelling, with depth of both character and plot, the threads joining both eras all strongly interwoven. Patricia is a bit lonely and when her friend pushes her to put an ad in a farmer's magazine she ends up starting correspondence with a man named Edward Foley. His characters have a cardboard quality and he has jammed the plot with events that never quite come together in a believable way. This book is nothing like his first book ( ) which I also loved but it has some similar themes; small town Ireland, dark humour, real life.

The story is tight, the writing is sensitive, the plot is gripping - this book has all the elements of a great read. The attitudes and interactions are steeped in the predjucises of the culture and yet it is such a human tale that it could be set anywhere. Meanwhile her 17 year old son back in NYC makes long lasting decisions that impact both his and Elizabeth's lives.

years earlier, a young woman stumbles from a remote stone house, the night quiet but for the tireless wind that circles her as she hurries further into the darkness away from the cliffs and the sea. She comes across some handwritten letters to her mother from a man by the name of Edward Foley in Cork. In this narrative that goes back and forth in time, Patricia's life is slowly revealed as to how she ended up being a confirmed spinster and life long devoted single mother to her beloved daughter, Elizabeth.The plot is quite far-fetched to begin with, but there are some sizeable holes in it, such as when characters do something completely out of character, or when information is revealed that makes something from earlier stop making sense, and then it's never explained (did we ever find out why Patricia owned the house, despite Edward still being alive?

I maybe at one point while reading this ARC said are you serious and then started muttering to myself about just DNFing it. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.

I was determined to finish it, although was proud of myself to see it out till the bitter end which,although sad, ended on a positive note.