Bostonian Maeve Maguire emigrates to Ireland in the 1970s, a single mother of an infant daughter. She settles in Dublin, where she becomes a matron at a home for the elderly. Her daughter Katy now a teenager, Maeve finds herself taking stock of her own life following the death of her beloved Pops back in Boston. A troubled relationship with a manic depressive mother is at the centre of Maeve’s backstory, most of which is told to the reader through journal entries. Little is shown in this novel, rather we hear all through Maeve. Attempts to connect Boston with Ireland are heavy handed, as are the mannerisms of the home’s elderly patients, whose antics are related instead of played out. Maeve herself comes to life but there is little room for other character development in a plot comprised of seemingly random anecdotes and digressions.
