Joan Mackenzie reviews The Coast Road by Alan Murrin

Hello I'm Joan and this book is called The Coast Road by Alan Murrin. I love novels that are set in small Irish villages especially this one because they’re so often full of gossips and busy-bodies and people minding other people’s business. This is set in 1994 before divorce became legal in Ireland. Can you imagine? And it’s the story of two women. Colette Crowley has run away from her husband, had a wild affair and now finds herself in this small place trying to rebuild her life. She’s a poet so she starts a writers course for local aspiring writers to which Izzy Keaveny decides to go one night really just as an excuse to get out of the house. The two become very good friends but when Colette’s husband bans her from seeing her three children because of her bad behaviour, Izzy is heartbroken for her and steps in to try and engineer a meeting between Colette and her children. Now Colette’s attempts to rebuild her life don’t go so well in this place it’s chaotic and catastrophic. The lives of these two women are entirely circumscribed by the men they married and this book is extraordinary. It has a kind of predictable heart in your mouth ending that you know that’s coming