People of the Songtrail by Kathleen Gear

People of the Songtrail by Kathleen Gear
On the shores of what is now northeastern Canada, a small group of intrepid settlers have landed, seeking freedom to worship and prosper far from the religious strife and political upheaval that plague a war-ridden Europe . . .
500 years before Columbus set sail.

While it has long been known that Viking ships explored the American coast, recent archaeological evidence suggests a far more vast and permanent settlement. It is from this evidence that archaeologists and early American history experts Kathy and Michael Gear weave their extraordinary tale.

Based on recent archaeological discoveries, People of the Songtrail is the saga of the first European settlers to land on the shores of the new world. It is a story, like so many in America’s history, of the swift and violent clash of cultures, and extraordinary men and women on both sides who are brave enough to work for the fragile hope of peace. (Publisher Summary)

Last Train to Babylon by Charlee Fam

Last Train to Babylon by Charlee Fam
"Who put the word fun in funeral? I can't think of anything fun about Rachel's funeral, except for the fact that she won't be there. Aubrey Glass has a collection of potential suicide notes--just in case. And now, five years--and five notes--after leaving her hometown, Rachel's the one who goes and kills herself. Aubrey can't believe her luck. But Rachel's death doesn't leave Aubrey in peace. There's a voicemail from her former friend, left only days before her death that Aubrey can't bring herself to listen to--and worse, a macabre memorial-turned-high-school reunion that promises the opportunity to catch up with everyone...including the man responsible for everything that went wrong between she and Rachel. In the days leading up to the funeral and infamous after party, Aubrey slips seamlessly between her past and present. Memories of friendship tangle with painful new encounters while underneath it all Aubrey feels the rush of something closing in, something she can no longer run from. And when the past and present collide in one devastating night, nothing will be the same again. But facing the future means confronting herself and a shattering truth. Now, Aubrey must decide what will define her: what lies behind . . . or what waits ahead"-- (Publisher Summary)

The Internship

The Intern's Handbook by Shane KuhnThe First Affair by Emma McLaughlinBuried in a Book by Lucy Arlington

The Intern's Handbook by Shane Kuhn
John Lago, New York City's most successful hit man, doubles as an intern at a prestigious Manhattan law firm where he gathers intel to pull of a clean, untraceable hit, but finds his plans thwarted by a sexy FBI agent who is assigned to take down the same law partner he's been assigned to kill. (Publisher Summary)

The First Affair by Emma McLaughlin
A woman recounts her summer internship at the White House during which she engaged in an affair with the president of the United States that, when exposed, destroyed her and the presidency and tries to make sense of her actions and the trauma it wrought for the world and for herself. (Publisher Summary)

Buried in a Book by Lucy Arlington
After losing her job as a journalist at the age of forty-five, Lila Wilkins accepts an internship at A Novel Idea, a thriving literary agency in North Carolina. Being paid to read seems perfect to Lila, although it's difficult with the cast of quirky co-workers and piles of query letters. But when a penniless aspiring author drops dead in the agency's waiting room-and Lila discovers a series of threatening letters-she's determined to find out who wrote him off. (Publisher Summary)

March Madness

Dream Team by Jack McCallumBrave Dragons by Jim YardleyTrue Fans by Dan AustinThe Hoops Whisperer by Idan Ravin

Dream Team by Jack McCallum
The 1992 U.S. team that won the Olympic gold medal is considered by virtually all knowledgeable observers to be the greatest basketball team ever assembled. Consider the roster: Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and Karl Malone are all Hall-of-Famers. Virtually all their teammates are, too. What makes this volume a must-read for nostalgic hoopsters are the robust portraits of the outsize personalities of the participants, all of whom were remarkably open with McCallum. (Booklist *Starred Review* )

Brave Dragons by Jim Yardley
When the Shanxi Brave Dragons, one of China’s worst professional basketball teams, hired former NBA coach Bob Weiss, the team’s owner, Boss Wang, promised that Weiss would be allowed to Americanize his players by teaching them “advanced basketball culture.” That promise would be broken from the moment Weiss landed in China. Desperate for his team to play like Americans, Wang—a peasant turned steel tycoon—nevertheless refused to allow his players the freedom and individual expression necessary to truly change their games. (Publisher Summary)

True Fans by Dan Austin
Three friends bike across America to bestow on the NBA Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., a basketball inscribed by everyday heroes. Based on Austin's documentary which won the People's Choice Award at the Banff Film Festival, the book begins with a sketch of the three pilgrims. Austin and his best friend, Clint, were consumed by basketball; Austin's younger brother Jared was more interested in biking, but willing to go along on their cross country pilgrimage to the "jock shrine". Their journey took them to a number of unusual basketball venues, from a hoop nailed to a barn to a small-town court lit up at night. The story pivots around basketball, but is essentially about the journey and about the kindness of strangers. (Kirkus Reviews)

The Hoops Whisperer by Idan Ravin
As a trainer, Ravin has helped hone the skills of some of pro basketball's biggest names. His arrival at this starry occupation was hardly glamorous. The product of a Conservative Jewish household, Ravin fell in love with basketball as a child and devised his own training regimen. Using that and his experience coaching youth basketball, he began training players while he pursued an unsatisfying law career. Year by year, despite no ties to the NBA hierarchy and a playing career that ended in high school, he attracted high-profile clients willing to pay for his personal, unorthodox training. (Publishers Weekly Reviews)

Librarian Picks

The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb
The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

Relocating to a family farm in Connecticut after surviving the Columbine school shootings, Caelum and Maureen discover a cache of family memorabilia dating back five generations, which reveals to Caelum unexpected truths about painful past events. (Publisher Summary)


East of Eden of John Steinbeck
East of Eden of John Steinbeck

In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden "the first book," and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California's Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. (Publisher Summary)


The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty
The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

Accompanying a future famous actress from her Wichita home to New York, chaperone Cora Carlisle shares a life-changing five-week period with her ambitious teenage charge during which she discovers the promise of the twentieth century and her own purpose in life. (Publisher Summary)


The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The book about a migrant family seeking a better life in California during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s was not only banned, it was burned by people citing vulgar words and sexual references, nevertheless the Nobel Prize committee later indicated that the work was one of the prime reasons that its author won the top award in literature. (Publisher Summary)

 Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnav
Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

On the sixtieth anniversary of the 1942 roundup of Jews by the French police in the Vel d'Hiv section of Paris, American journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article on this dark episode during World War II and embarks on investigation that leads her to long-hidden family secrets and to the ordeal of Sarah, a young girl caught up in the raid. (Publisher Summary)

This Day in History: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York City, March 25 1911

Triangle: The Fire that Changed America by David Von Drehle
Triangle: The Fire that Changed America by David Von Drehle

"It was a profitable business in a modern fireproof building heralded as a model of efficiency. Yet the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York City became the deadliest workplace in American history when fire broke out on the premises on March 25, 1911. Within about 15 minutes the blaze killed 146 workers-most of them immigrant Jewish and Italian women in their teens and early 20s. Though most workers on the eighth and 10th floors escaped, those on the ninth floor were trapped behind a locked exit door. As the inferno spread, the trapped workers either burned to death inside the building or jumped to their deaths on the sidewalk below. Journalist Von Drehle recounts the disaster-the worst in New York City until September 11, 2001-in passionate detail. He explains the sociopolitical context in which the fire occurred and the subsequent successful push for industry reforms, but is at his best in his moment-by-moment account of the fire. He describes heaps of bodies on the sidewalk, rows of coffins at the makeshift morgue where relatives identified charred bodies by jewelry or other items, and the scandalous manslaughter trial at which the Triangle owners were acquitted of all charges stemming from the deaths. Von Drehle's engrossing account, which emphasizes the humanity of the victims and the theme of social justice, brings one of the pivotal and most shocking episodes of American labor history to life. Photos not seen by PW. Agent: Esther Newberg." ~ Publishers Weekly Reviews

Top Book Club Picks

Top Book Club Picks in February

Shown below are the ten most popular books club books based on votes from more than 120,000 book club readers from more than 39,000 book clubs registered at Bookmovement.com:

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simison

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

The Boys in the Boat by Sue Monk Kidd

The Storied Life of A.J.Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty



Thunder of Giants by Joel Fishbane

Thunder of Giants by Joel Fishbane
Everything about Andorra Kelsey is big, and her Depression-era story is no exception. At nearly eight feet tall, the woman known in Detroit as the Giant of Elsa Street, is looking for a way to escape when a Hollywood scout offers her a role in a picture. The movie is about Anna Swan, another giant from a generation earlier, whose stature gained her fame in P. T. Barnum's American Museum in New York. As the two stories unfold, numerous similarities surface in this witty and earnest work of historical fiction. While Andorra is an invented character, Swan was very real, born to a farming family in Nova Scotia in the mid-nineteenth century. Fishbane deftly draws out the difficulty these women face in finding the right fit, whether it's with a suitable suitor or a piece of furniture. Although their personalities seem cut from the same cloth, they are differentiated enough by their adventures through wars, disaster, and redemption. As it turns out, the biggest thing about these amazing women is their hearts. (Booklist Reviews)

Just for Fun


Us by David NichollsSomeday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren GrahamMaybe This Time by Jennifer CrusieOne Plus One by Jojo Moyes

Us by David Nicholls
Nicholls brings his trademark wit and wisdom to this by turns hilarious and heartbreaking examination of a long-term marriage. Biochemist Douglas Petersen is about to embark on a "grand tour" of Europe with his artistic wife of 25 years, Connie, and his temperamental 17-year-old son, Albie, who is about to leave for college. But on the eve of their departure, his wife tells him that, after the trip, she wants a divorce. A shocked Douglas hatches a scheme to win back his wife and repair his fractious relationship with his son. Traveling from the museums of Paris and Amsterdam to the beaches of Spain, the Petersen family struggle to regain their equilibrium, but Douglas' determination to "have fun," complete with an ironclad itinerary, leads to spectacular fights, hurt feelings, and simmering tensions, all of which are conveyed by Nicholls with both humor and a deep compassion for human frailty. As Douglas looks back in longing on the couple's first heady days of love and courtship, he struggles to maintain his touching optimism for the future of their marriage. This tender novel will further cement Nicholls' reputation as a master of romantic comedy. (Booklist *Starred Review*)

Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham
Actor Graham (Gilmore Girls, Parenthood) turns to a new creative outlet with her breezy first novel set in the demoralizing if funny bustle of New York City's 1995 acting world. Twenty something Franny Banks is destined to act, if she can can actually land a decent audition and an even more decent part. Able to pay her rent since she snagged a coveted comedy-club waitressing job, Franny lives the typical life of a struggling actor as she tries to balance finding a good agent, going to auditions, making a splash in her acting class, and keeping her disliked if much-needed job while fretting over the looming self-imposed deadline of three years to make it on Broadway. Her roommates, good pal Jane and wannabe writer Dan, play her foils as she also deals with family issues and the very enticing James Franklin, from her acting class. A jaunty style and cutesy Filofax entries mark this as light yet enjoyable reading. (Booklist Reviews)

Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie
Entreated by her ex-husband to help with two orphans recently placed in his custody, closure-seeking Andie discovers the task to be much harder than anticipated in light of the orphans' delinquent antics, a haunting and Andie's rekindled feelings. (Publisher Summary)

One Plus One by Jojo Moyes
One Plus One equals one fine novel. With its ensemble cast of skillfully crafted characters—from single-mom Jess Thomas to tortured goth teen Nicky and gifted sister Tanzie to Ed Nicholls, technology millionaire—each person's story flows on its own, yet they all meld together into an uncommonly good story about family, trust, and love. Moyes gets things rolling as this hysterically mismatched mélange—along with Norman, a slobbering 80-pound dog of "indeterminate" breed—embarks on a road trip from the English shore to Aberdeen, Scotland, so that Tanzie can compete in a maths "Olympiad." Her ability to enroll in a prestigious school rides on whether she can win the competition's cash prize. She's certainly earned the best education; her family just can't afford it. In a riotous twist and momentary lapse of good sense, Ed volunteers his "top-of-the-range" Audi, complete with his services as driver. There are high jinks galore as perhaps one-too-many gastrointestinal problems arise, but, in all, the trip, with what Ed perceives as its terrifying "boundarylessness," delivers on its promise, just not in the way anyone anticipated. (Booklist *Starred Review*)


Women and the Sea by Claire Murray

 Women and The Sea by Claire Murray
Hearing the Siren's Song

"While seductive sirens and beguiling mermaids suggest the mysterious feminine nature of the sea, many real women have turned to it not only for sustenance but also for inspiration. Women and the Sea tells the tales of artists, crafters, entrepreneurs, "fishin' chix", captains, scientists, a surfing school headmistress, and a sandcastle sculptress. In sharing their stories, these women pay tribute to all of their sisters who, too, have long been mesmerized by the lore and lure of the sea." (Foreward by Claire Murray)




Shipwrecks, Smugglers, and Maritime Mysteries

 13 Legends of Fire Island and the Great South Bay by Jack Whitehouse
13 Legends of Fire Island and the Great South Bay by Jack Whitehouse

13 short stories about Fire Island's pirates, ghosts, shipwrecks and treasure chests of buried gold and silver. If you like horror and suspense, history and mystery, or if you simply enjoy Fire Island and the Great South Bay then you will love this anthology. (Publisher Summary)

Mayday! by Van R. Field
Mayday! by Van R. Field

From Valiant Rescues to sorrowful disasters, the eastern shore of Long Island is home to a riveting collection of maritime lore. In Mayday!, author Van R. Field painstakingly assembles a compendium of Long Island's most harrowing, amazing and notorious shipwrecks and ocean-going incidents. (Publisher Summary)

Smuggling by Alan Karras
Smuggling by Alan Karras

Karras traces the history of smuggling around the world and explores all aspects of this pervasive and enduring crime. Bringing smugglers and smuggling to life, this book provides a fascinating exploration for all readers interested in crime and corruption throughout modern history. (Publisher Summary)

Outlaws of the Atlantic by Marcus Rediker
Outlaws of the Atlantic by Marcus Rediker

Rediker explores world of maritime adventure, not from the perspective of admirals, merchants, and nation-states but from the viewpoint of commoners, sailors, slaves, indentured servants, pirates, and other outlaws. Bringing together their seafaring experiences, Outlaws of the Atlantic is an unexpected and compelling peoples’ history of the “age of sail. (Publisher Summary)

Ghost of the Mary Celeste by Valerie Martin
Ghost of the Mary Celeste by Valerie Martin

In 1872 the American merchant vessel Mary Celeste was discovered adrift off the coast of Spain. Her cargo was in tact and there was no sign of struggle, but the crew was gone. They were never found. This maritime mystery lies at the center of an intricate narrative branching through the highest levels of late- nineteenth-century literary society. (Publisher Summary)

Top 5 Classic Sci-Fi Titles Our Patrons Love

Our patrons love Sci-Fi! Here are the top five novels that have been checked out from our science fiction/fantasy collection:

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
This book was so well read that it's worn out. Don't worry, a replacement is on its way! Dune Messiah is the second in the popular Dune series and, according to Galaxy Magazine, is "brilliant...it is all that Dune was, and maybe a little bit more." Dune Messiah continues the story of Paul Atreides, better known-and feared-as the man christened Muad'Dib. As Emperor of the Known Universe, he possesses more power than a single man was ever meant to wield. Worshipped as a religious icon by the fanatical Fremens, Paul faces the enmity of the political houses he displaced when he assumed the throne-and a conspiracy conducted within his own sphere of influence. And even as House Atreides begins to crumble around him, the true threat to Paul comes to his lover and the unborn heir to his family's dynasty.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
This cult classic, the Boston Globe called "Irrisitible" and Publishers Weekly describes as "[A] whimical odyssey...characters frolic through the galaxy with infectious joy,"was first published in 1979 and went on to become a television show, a radio show and a series of five more books.  For those unfamiliar with this book, here is a summary: Escaping Earth just before it is demolished to make way for a new galactic highway, reluctant galactic traveler Arthur Dent embarks on a series of off-beat and occasionally extraterrestrial journeys, accompanied by a variety of unusual companions.

The Seeress of Kell by David Eddingings
The Seeress of Kell by David Eddingings
Time was running out for Garion and his companions in their quest to recover Garion's infant son and heir. If they could not locate the Place Which Is No More, then Zandramas, the Child of Dark, would use Garion's son in a rite that would raise the Dark Prophecy to eternal dominion over the universe. Only the Seeress of Kell could reveal the site of that mysterious place--and that she could do only once Garion and Polgara had fulfilled an ancient prophecy in the mountain fastness of the Seers. The Seeress of Kell is the fifth and final installment in Eddings Mallorean series. It is recommended to read this series in order. Start with Guardians of the West, followed by King of Murgos, Demon Lord of Karanda and The Sorceress of Darshiva.

First and Only - Gaunt's Ghost by Dan Abnett
One of the Warhammer 40,000 series based on the Warhammer 40,000 wargame which is set in a dystopian science fiction/fantasy universe, First and Only: Gaunt's Ghost is the first of the Warhammer 40,000 Gaunt's Ghost Founding Series and revisits the early adventures of Commisar Gaunt and the Tanith First-and-Only as they fight for survival in their war-torn homeworld. 

Neuromancer by William Gibson
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Hired to break into the virtually inaccessible computer network of a large corporation, Case, the world's finest interface cowboy, and Molly, a street-smart samurai, venture deep into cyberspace only to discover that they have become pawns in a deadly game. With Neormancer, William Gibson launched the "cyberpunk" genre and won three coveted science fiction awards for best novel: the Nebula, the Hugo, and the Philip K. Dick awards.

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day!

 Ireland by Frank Delaney
Ireland by Frank Delaney

An epic tale-within-a-tale based on the history of Ireland finds a traditional wandering Storyteller revealing his life experiences while forging a poignant new relationship in the home of an eight-year-old boy. (Publisher Summary)


Malachy Mccourt's History of Ireland

Explores the Ireland's history, from the early Celtic settlements through British occupation and struggles for independence, highlighting prominent heroes, artists, poets, and politicians. (Publisher Summary)


Everything Irish edited by Lelia Ruckstein and James A. O'Malley
Everything Irish edited by Lelia Ruckstein and James A. O'Malley

A single-volume resource on Irish history and culture features more than eight hundred annotated entries that cover the island nation's government leaders, folk heroes, ancient myths, pivotal events, geographical highlights, and art. (Publisher Summary)


Irish Girls About Town by Maeve Binchy
Irish Girls About Town by Maeve Binchy

A heartwarming anthology of sixteen short stories about family, friendship, and love features contributions from such popular Irish women authors as Maeve Binchy, Marian Keyes, Cathy Kelly, Colette Caddle, Morag Prunty, Julie Parsons, Joan O'Neill, Gemma O'Connor, Catherine Dunne, and Martina Devlin. (Publisher Summary)


The House on Willow Street by Cathy Kelly

In the sleepy Irish coastal town of Avalon, four women--Tess, who faces a crumbling marriage; her sister Suki, who is the victim of a dirt-digging biographer; Mara, who is seeking sanctuary; and Danae, the village postmistress who guards the town's secrets--must confront their pasts before they can look to the future. (Publisher Summary)


A Catered St. Patrick's Day by Isis Crawford
A Catered St. Patrick's Day by Isis Crawford

When Mike Sweeney is found floating in a vat of green beer and the nephew of one of their best customers is accused of the crime, Bernie and Libby Simmons, the owners of A Little Taste of Heaven, must find the real killer before the luck o' the Irish runs out. (Publisher Summary)

If you like Irish Fiction...

Black Lake by Johanna LaneThe Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian KeyesThe Dead Republic by Roddy Doyle

The Fields by Kevin MaherThe Gathering by Anne EnrightAn Irish Doctor in Peace and at War by Patrick Taylor

Black Lake by Johanna Lane
John and Marianne Campbell live with their children, Kate and Philip, at Dulough, the Donegal estate named after nearby Black Lake. Because it was willed to John without the funds to maintain it, he brokers a deal with the government to renovate and open Dulough to the public, shunting his family to a small cottage on the grounds. These changes disrupt the Campbells' seemingly idyllic life. Does the move destabilize the family? Or does it simply reveal existing instabilities among them? Young Philip seeks escape from the turmoil around him by building a hut on an island in Black Lake, an ultimately tragic fancy that further undermines the entire family. ~ Library Journal Reviews

The Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes
Keyes delivers a dizzying vertical view of the mismatched, mixed-up tenants of Dublin's 66 Star Street, friends and lovers who grow up, grow old and give way to their "heart currents" with help from a puckish sprite. This multitiered saga of Dubliners searching for "the brightest star in the sky... the planet of love" straddles slapstick and sophistication in an engaging balancing act both giddy and grand. Here's Katie, publicist, freshly 40, and her workaholic, commitment-phobic fella, Conall; newlyweds Maeve and Matt, who hide a violent and crippling secret that binds them and drives them apart; madcap, sassy Lydia, a taxi driver who juggles worries about her aging mom and an over-the-top passion for her sexy flatmate; plucked from nowhere hunk Fionn, who hopes to begin a TV career, and his psychic foster mom and her mean-as-a-snake dog who improbably helps bring all the sweet mayhem to a satisfying close. ~Publisher Weekly Reviews

The Dead Republic by Roddy Doyle
Doyle digs into the modern history of Ireland in the concluding volume to the life story of Henry Smart, a teenage Sinn Fein trigger-man first encountered in A Star Called Henry. Here, an aging Henry must preserve his own legend, which is taken away from him first for a film, and then by the IRA. In the mid-1940s, film director John Ford plans to make a movie based on Henry's life, but Henry eventually realizes the film that Ford has planned will reduce his story to sentimental pap. Upon returning to Ireland with Ford, Henry plans on killing the director, but his callousness has faded, and he drifts into the Dublin suburbs, where he meets a respectable widow who may be his long-disappeared wife. Henry ages in obscurity until the '70s, when the IRA uses a distorted version of Henry's story as a PR ploy; as the IRA man who runs Henry explains, "we hold the copyright" to the Irish story ~ Publisher Weekly Reviews

The Fields by Kevin Maher
Set in Dublin in the 1980s, The Fields is the story of young Jim Finnegan's coming-of-age. Benchmarks of his uneven progress include his serial sexual abuse at the hands of the local parish priest and his falling in love with a beautiful older girl, Saidhbh. A bit improbably (he's only 14; she's 17), she returns his affections and in short order becomes pregnant. The two go to London, planning an abortion. But will they follow through, and what will happen to them in the city? Maher's first novel features a wonderfully sympathetic protagonist and first-person narrator in Jim, while his family—his parents and five older sisters—are equally endearing. The voice and tone are spot on, but after a realistic treatment of the characters and a nicely realized setting, the book takes a very odd turn near the end when Jim discovers New Age thought and practices. ~ Booklist Reviews

The Gathering by Anne Enright
*Starred Review* The blessing and the curse of family bonds have been addressed by some of our best writers, perhaps never so movingly as by William Kennedy in his Albany cycle of novels. Now Irish novelist Enright, whose intense lyrical style recalls Kennedy's, gives full voice to another tale of familial agony: Veronica's grief in the wake of her wayward brother Liam's suicide. Past and present merge as Veronica recalls their childhood growing up in Dublin in a family of 14, with never enough money or enough attention from their overburdened parents. She's convinced it all went wrong when Liam was sexually abused by a family friend, and her recollections of that day alternate with sunnier ones of their endless roughhousing and joking. When Liam drowned himself, with a tide of "blood, sea water and whiskey" running in his veins, he took Veronica's sense of purpose with him. Inconsolable, and suffering from insomnia, she spends her evenings driving and writing, trying to come to terms with the fact that "someone you love is dead, and the world is full of people you don't." Enright's hypnotic prose turns her desperation into something fierce and beautiful. ~ Booklist Reviews

Long before Doctor Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly became a fixture in the colourful Irish village of Ballybucklebo, he was a young M.B. with plans to marry midwife Dierdre Mawhinney. Those plans were complicated by the outbreak of World War II and the call of duty. Assigned to the HMS Warspite. Life in Ballybuckebo is a far cry from the strife of war, but over two decades later O’Reilly and his younger colleagues still have plenty of challenges: an outbreak of German measles, the odd tropical disease, a hard-fought pie-baking contest, and a local man whose mule-headed adherence to tradition is standing in the way of his son’s future. Now older and wiser, O’Reilly has prescriptions for whatever ails…until a secret from the past threatens to unravel his own peace of mind.~ Publisher Summary