Annie Dunne

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Essentially, they are a metaphor for new beginnings, but can Annie let go of her troubled past to start afresh with two youngsters in her charge?

There are only a few major incidents - such as when the cousins’ horse bolts; or when Annie encounters the children involved in a sexual experiment; or when the young boy disappears - but this does not matter. I expected this book, which was a gift from a friend, to tap the heart strings of my Irish heritage and make them sound lovely notes of appreciation and perhaps nostalgia. The book describes the events of the summer as Annie delights in playing the role of a mother, but also feels threatened by the prospect of her cousin marrying a local farmhand, thus leaving her homeless once again. A very moving and often lovely story; intense and exciting at times, occasionally horrifying and terrifying.To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. The eponymous protagonist is an unmarried woman in her sixties who lives with her similarly solitary cousin Sarah in a Wicklow farmhouse. But the death isn't ruled a murder—and might never have been if one of the gang—a cadging sybarite named Bunny Corcoran—hadn't shown signs of cracking under the secret's weight. Plain and poor, and afflicted with a humpback since a childhood attack of polio, Annie is grateful to Sarah for taking her in. Billy Kerr would harass the deer if there was any profit to himself in doing so, as he is a man without qualities.

And it is that dichotomy between what Annie feels inside and the way her actions are interpreted by others which provides the tension — and the heart-breaking emotion — that makes this novel a truly special one. If you love language and artful prose and are aching for something off the beaten path with pathos, grit, poetry, suspense, mystery, atmosphere, heart, love, elegance and lacking in mind numbing common blah blah, read Annie Dunne. The summer we spend with Sarah and Annie also has a couple of other visitors: Annie’s grand niece and nephew, whose names are never revealed, come to stay because their parents are moving to London and they want to get everything all set up before bringing the kids over. The story improves after a slow start but the writing is like a rich Christmas pudding, with taste sensations that stay in the memory and the occasional delicious surprise.I wasn’t so enamoured of the ending, but in the grand scheme of things I was truly glad to have read it. She ended up living with her cousin Sara near the place where many of her relatives grew up, and when Matt’s young grandchildren came for a visit while their parents set up their new home in London, Annie was overjoyed.