Araby

'On hearing of Kitty Keenan's admittance to hospital, her grown-up son Rory returns to Ireland to comfort his father and await the diagnosis . . . Rory's narrative, charting the steady decline of her health, is interspersed with a series of flashbacks . . . through which Kitty emerges larger than life. For Rory, these snapshots of the past are part of the process of unpicking the odd tangle of love and petty grievances that characterise familial relationships. Mulrooney's ability to make sense of the contradictions in clear, precise prose is the most remarkable achievement of the novel. A beautifully observed study of reconciliation, 'Araby' makes astute points about conflict and shifting values between generations. '
JAMES EVE, 'The Times''Kitty is a magnificent diva of discontent: contradictory, ludicrous, sharp-witted, thick-skinned, the sort of character best enjoyed from a distance . . . The narrative of her decline and death is worked with frequent flashbacks to Kitty's heyday, and her enthusiasm for Catholicism, medicament, hobbies and quarrelling . . . What is admirable about Mulrooney's writing is the way she manages to keep the tone bouyant, while alluding to many heartbreaking strands of family history. For both Kitty and Rory, this is a story of gallant survival. '
RUTH PAVEY, 'Independent''Mulrooney has a real gift for dialogue, the words and phrases ring true and make her characters wonderfully real . . . A tenderly funny and genuinely moving piece. I loved it.'
FIONA MORROW, 'Time Out''An amusing, totally unsentimental slice of life and a chilling meditation on morality . . . Never angst-ridden or moralistic (a mixture of black comedy, affection and over-the-top farce) . . . I really enjoyed this truthful and affecting novel. '
BOOKS IRELAND'Wonderful'
MAEVE BINCHY