
Confessions, by debut author Catherine Airey, is an old-fashioned story in the very best sense of the word. Commuting back and forth between the vibrant, isolating metropolis of New York City and an insular, restrictive village in rural Ireland, it spans a period of almost 50 years, taking in everything from the AIDS crisis to 9/11 to Brexit.
While it could easily tip into the depressing, Airey’s deft touch ensures the novel brings fresh insight to well-worn plot threads. It offers up a sweeping, immersive saga focused on three generations of women who all hail from the same messy, extended family. What connects the women most strongly is the house they have all called home. A ramshackle, multi-storied building thought to be so haunted that many locals won’t even step inside the front door, it acts as a striking metaphor for the women’s essential otherness from the rest of this close-knit Irish community.
The secrets they carry from their time spent beneath its roof dog them silently through the years, keeping them tethered to the village and to each other, no matter how far away they might fly. A lyrical and emotionally affecting story, Confessions has nothing to declare but a whole lot to say.
Confessions, Catherine Airey (Penguin)
Price: £16.99/£8.99 Ebook/£14 audiobook. Info: here
words RACHEL REES