I had for some reason failed to finish four books before this one. I was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with me. Then I went through this one at speed, how I like to read, like an experienced runner. So I guess it was the books, not me.
This book was a straightforward love story, complicated by the lovers being on either side of the religious divide in Northern Ireland in the 1970s. I have yet to understand all the strong feelings in Ireland, and especially what it has to do with religion, but certainly I got that there was a lot of trauma. Perhaps unsympathetically, or just because I am an immigrant, I just kept thinking: why don’t you just leave? Sometimes geography really is the answer
I note that this book is the first from a woman who spent the last thirty years as a chef. I love that, people who reinvent themselves so dramatically.