(HarperCollins, $38.99)
I have been trying to read the new oaeve Binchy for what feels like forever. First, Marc Ellis and Father’s Day got in the way. Now, the book itself has gone missing somewhere between Auckland and Wellington.
I’ve loved Irish novelist oaeve Binchy for more than 20 years and always look forward to her latest. She can be thoroughly relied on to draw her reader into a circle of friends and family that feels so familiar you could almost be related to them.
Sadly, she’s still in hiding but in searching for her I think I might have stumbled upon another Irish treasure trove of potential relatives – Cathy Kelly.
I’d not read anything of hers before but soon discovered she too is an Irish writer (who has recently been to our very shores) whose novels sells millions around the world. Figuratively and literally, Cathy Kelly is my new oaeve Binchy.
In Homecoming she introduces us to the residents of pretty Golden Square in the middle of Dublin. Elderly Eleanor has just returned to the square to lick her wounds after a lifetime spent in New York. Rae runs the local tearooms and has a kind word for everyone else but is full of loathing for herself. Connie is about to turn 40 and has decided the only decent man she’ll ever have is between the covers of a bodice-ripper romance. And Megan has man trouble too but with the added aggravation of being a famous film star pursued by the media, which is intent on portraying her as a heartless floozy.
If you can’t find a friend or distant relative amongst that lot, I’ll eat my hat.
In true oaeve Binchy style, Cathy Kelly draws her characters together with warmth, compassion and a smattering of humour providing the fans she will no doubt have for decades to come with an effortless feel-good page-turner.
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