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Summary
Summary
From Knockglen to Dublin, heartbreak and betrayal follow three extraordinary and unforgettable women as an explosive confrontation brings hidden lies to the surface and tests the meaning of love and the bonds of friendship. A major motion picture release from Savoy Pictures is scheduled for St. Patrick's Day (March 17) release. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
Author Notes
Maeve Binchy was born in Dublin, Ireland on May 28, 1940. She received a B.A. from University College in Dublin in 1960. After teaching at a school for girls, she became a journalist, columnist and editor at the Irish Times. By 1979, she was writing plays, a successful television script, and several short story collections.
Her first novel, Light a Penny Candle, was published in 1982. During her lifetime, she wrote more than 20 books including Silver Wedding, Scarlet Feather, Heart and Soul, Minding Frankie, and A Week in Winter. The Lilac Bus and Echoes were made into TV movies, while Circle of Friends, Tara Road and How About You were made into feature films. Her title Chestnut Street is a New York Times Best Seller. She died after a brief illness on July 30, 2012 at the age of 72.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
YA-- Binchy transports readers to the village of Knockglen in Ireland to meet Benny, the only child of doting parents; Eve Malone, an orphan raised by nuns; and a host of local characters. The girls form a lasting friendship that continues when they go on to college in Dublin. There they meet beautiful Nan, who tries to hide her poor background and drunken father; Jack Foley, a doctor's son; and all their university friends. Provincial Knockglen and fast-paced Dublin become intertwined as the girls try to exist in both worlds. A wonderful, readable story of successes and disappointments, intrigues and loyalty, families and friendships, this novel demonstrates that testing values, maintaining relationships, and coming of age are universal struggles.-- Katherine Fitch, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The charm of Binchy's novels ( Silver Wedding ; Light a Penny Candle ) lies in a seductive readability that draws one through hundreds of pages as surely as a mackerel at the end of a hooked line--contrived plot thickeners and stock characters notwithstanding. In this lengthy story of a friendship and love and loss, there are no lapses or lulls. Benny, plain daughter of a merchant, and Eve, a proud orphan raised by nuns, are close friends growing up in the Irish village of Knockglen in the 1950s. When they go to university in Dublin together, their loyalty is tested by the addition of others to their circle, most notably the beautiful, mysterious Nan, an ambitious young woman determined to rise above her working-class origins. While Nan seizes opportunities, friendships and romances are kindled and damped; ugly duckling Benny becomes a swan, and true love almost conquers all. Everybody has a colorful way with words, and if the prose is sometimes careless, this is still Irish storytelling at its contemporary best; small flaws are easily overlooked in a book that is itself so generous. BOMC featured selection. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Another Blarney charmer from the irrepressible Binchy set, as many of her recent efforts (like Firefly Summer, 1988) have been, in an Irish village--called Knockglen--circa 1960. As usual, Binchy brings her habitat to life warmly, fully, and from the viewpoints of myriad cottagers, including a funny Irish-Italian restauranteur who aims to become Knockglen's Mr. Big; the stiff hotel proprietress whose passion is corsets; the looney butcher; and, above all, Eve Malone and Benny Hogan, the village's Mutt and Jeff. In Binchy's hands, their adolescence is a tender thing, full of hushed discussions about babies, bellybuttons, and nuns. Eve is an orphan, abandoned by the classy, Protestant Westward family and raised with a great deal of love by Mother Francis at St. Mary's Convent. Benny's the adored daughter of a Knockglen merchant, though ""no one on earth"" feels as ""cooped up and smothered"" as she does. At 18, it's off to University College in Dublin for the two young women, where they team up with ambitious vixen Nan Mahon, and where Benny falls hopelessly in love with campus heartbreaker Jack Foley. Amazingly, though, Jack returns her affection--or seems to, until Nan gets her hooks into him, since she's got herself pregnant by Knockglen squire Simon Westward and needs a stand-in daddy. Benny's sheltered childhood comes to a close not only because she loses Jack, but because her father dies suddenly of a heart attack during teatime, leaving Benny to sort things out at the shop. Meanwhile, Eve befriends Simon Westward's lonely little sister, which forces her to come to terms with her familial past. . .and life in Knockglen goes on. Binchy's at her impish best playing telephone amongst the villagers, reporting the wildly disparate ways they process events. Only eejits wouldn't find this companionable. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Best friends since childhood in a small Irish village, first-year college students Benny and Eve are thrilled by the excitement of university life in Dublin. Befriended by Nan, a beautiful classmate with secret ambitions, the three form the nucleus of an ever-widening circle of friends that provides them with a happy sense of belonging and introduces them to a world of carefree activity. However, this light-hearted existence is brought to an abrupt halt when Nan's selfish, callous plans backfire, victimizing Benny and creating within Eve an obsessive desire to avenge Benny. Binchy is a wonderful storyteller, drawing the reader into the hearts of her characters. This engrossing examination of friendship's vicissitudes moves forward effortlessly at a marvelous pace, carrying the reader along on tense, mounting waves of loyalty and deceit. Highly recommended for all popular fiction collections. BOMC alternate.-- Sis ter M. Anna Falbo, Villa Maria Coll. Lib., Buffalo, N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.