Solace - Belinda McKeon

Mark Casey has left home, the rural Irish community where his family has farmed the same land for generations, to study for a doctorate in Dublin, a vibrant, contemporary city full of possibility. To his father, Tom, who needs help baling the hay and ploughing the fields, Mark's pursuit isn't work at all, and indeed Mark finds himself whiling away his time with pubs and parties. His is a life without focus or responsibility, until he meets Joanne Lynch, a trainee solicitor whom he finds irresistible. Joanne too has a past to escape from and for a brief time she and Mark share the chaos and rapture of a new love affair, until the lightning strike of tragedy changes everything.

Solace is a work to be admired for its spare, intense lyricism, its range, and its deeply compassionate portrayal of life as it is lived now.

'An elegant, consuming and richly inspired novel. A superb debut. This one will last' Colum McCann

'A novel of quiet power, filled with moments of carefully-told truth . . . this book will appeal to readers both young and old' Colm Tibn

'A story of clear-eyed compassion and quiet intelligence' Anne Enright