Award-winning writer Sue Hubbard delivers a poignant story of transformation, conjuring the rugged beauty of County Kerry's coastline.

Newly widowed, Martha Cassidy has returned to a remote cottage in a virtually abandoned village on the west coast of Ireland for reasons even she is uncertain of. Looking out from her window towards the dramatic rise of the Skelligs across the water, she reflects on the loss of Brendan, her husband and charming curator, his death stirring unresolved heartache from years gone by. Alone on the windswept headland, surrounded by miles of cold sea, the past closes in.

As the days unfold, Martha searches for a way forward beyond grief, but finds herself drawn into a standoff between the entrepreneur Eugene Riordan and local hill farmer Paddy O'Connell. While the tension between them builds to a crisis that leaves Paddy in hospital, Martha encounters Colm, a talented but much younger musician and poet. Caught between its history and its future, the Celtic Tiger reels with change, and Martha faces redemptive choices that will change her life forever.

The poignant story of loss and transformation by an award-winning author

About the Author

Sue Hubbard is an art critic, novelist and poet and she has contributed regularly to a wide range of publications including the New Statesman and The Independent, and has also written for The Times and The Guardian. She has contributed to many arts programmes, including Kaleidoscope and Night Waves. In 2006 she was awarded a major Arts Council Literary Award. Twice winner of the London Writers' Award, her poems have been read on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 and she is well known for her poem that stretches across Waterloo station made possible by a grant from BFI. Find out more at: www.suehubbard.com

Reviews

'An elegiac story of loss and valediction... Woolfian echoes pulse through haunting the reader' Guardian

'A wool-soaked odyssey on the Iveragh peninsula I could feel and smell the rain all the way through, and when the sun broke in now and then, I felt that too... tremendous and moving' Irish Times

'A gently absorbing novel... wistful but never morose - tugging the heartstrings without milking the double bereavement at the novel's heart' Daily Mail

'A beautifully-written and evocative novel about grief and greed, art and life, isolation and emotion' Amanda Craig

'A ravishing tale of an emotional journey in the wild beauty of Ireland... Read this book for the delicacy of its central story , the sheer delight of being led into the drama of this edge of the world with its landscape beaten by hectic weather and lit by unfiltered sunlight, and for the pleasure of Hubbard's intensely honed, sharply insightful story-telling' Angela Neustatter

'Ambitious and heartfelt... brings a poet's lyric gift to a compelling story' Shena Mackay

'A lyrical evocation of Ireland's fragile, ancient coastline reveals a poet's sensibility. This multi-layered story of love and loss, of a woman 'erased by grief', who finds solace in the heart of a community that is threatened from within, is exceptionally moving. This book will stay with you' Eleanor Fitzsimons

'Has a unique and beautiful emotive quality that shines through its delicately constructed prose in a love-letter to Ireland, memory and parenthood, taking advantage of its mature narrator to speak with resonance and depth. In a contemporary world of instant connections, Rainsongs returns to an age just prior to the boom of social media 2007 in an exploration of what it means to be truly alone... champions the role of literature in an increasingly disconnected modern world' London Magazine

Book Information
ISBN 9780715652862
Author Sue Hubbard
Format Paperback
Page Count 242
Imprint Duckworth
Publisher Duckworth Books