HOLDING

HOME STRETCH

It is 1987, and a small Irish community is preparing for the wedding of two of its young inhabitants. They're barely adults, not so long out of school and still part of the same set of friends they've grown up with. As the friends head home from the beach that last night before the wedding, there is a car accident. Three survive the crash, but three are killed. And the reverberations are felt throughout the small town. Connor, the young driver of the car, lives. But staying among the angry and the mourning is almost as hard as living with the shame and so he leaves the only place he knows for another life. Travelling first to Liverpool, then London, by the noughties he has made a home - of sorts - for himself in New York. The city provides shelter and possibility for the displaced, somewhere Connor can forget his past and forge a new life. But the secrets, the unspoken longings and regrets that have come to haunt those left behind will not be silenced. And before long, Connor will have to meet his past.

A KEEPER

Elizabeth Keane returns to Ireland after her mother's death, intent on wrapping up that dismal part of her life. And perhaps, had she not found the small stash of letters, the truth would never have come to light. Forty years earlier, a young woman stumbles from a remote stone house. As she hurries further into the darkness away from the cliffs and the sea, she has no sense of where she is going, only that she must keep on.

THE LIFE AND LOVES OF A HE-DEVIL

‘It seems to me that we are all made up of the things we adore…’ In his new autobiography, written with characteristic humour and often outrageous candour, Graham shows that life is more than just a series of dates and it's really the things you love that make you who you are. From his beloved dogs to his rediscovered love of Ireland, the men Graham has loved and lost, to his love affair with New York. He is loved across the nation for his delight in the peculiar and for his ability to find humour and a common ground in all that life brings.

THE SWIMMER

Helen is a retired teacher living on the Irish coast. She enjoys the peace and quiet—despite the burden of Margaret, her unpleasant sister. Margaret arrived three years ago for a short holiday but somehow managed to stay and worm her way into Helen's life. One day, Helen sees a man struggling in the sea and decides to investigate. She doesn't quite know what it is, but something about it feels very strange...