Confessions: A Novel

by Catherine Airey Narrated by Not Yet Available

Overview

""Confessions is a remarkable debut. A complex and compulsive read that unravels the intricate twists and revelations among three generations of women with elegance and urgency."" -Miranda Cowley Heller, author of The Paper Palace

For fans of The Goldfinch and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, an ambitious and absorbing debut that follows three generations of women from New York to rural Ireland and back again.

New York City, late September 2001. The walls of the city are papered over with photos of the missing. Cora Brady's father is there, the poster she made taped to columns and bridges. When a letter arrives from an aunt she didn't know existed in Ireland with the offer of a new life, the name jogs a memory: an old videocassette game Cora used to play as a child where two sisters must save the students of a mysterious boarding school.

County Donegal, 1974. An eclectic group of artists known as the Screamers arrives in Burtonport and moves into the old schoolhouse down the road from where Roisin lives with her older sister Moira. Alternately kind and cruel, brilliant artist Moira is a mystery to Roisin, as is Moira's relationship with the boy next door, Michael. When the Screamers look to hire an artist in residence, Roisin enlists Michael's help to get Moira the job, setting in motion a chain of events that will put an ocean between the sisters and threaten to tear them apart forever.

Burtonport, 2018. Lyca Brady lives in a sprawling old house with her mother, Cora, and great aunt, Ro. Abortion has just been legalized in Ireland, and Lyca is struggling to find herself outside her mother's activism. An unexpected message from a childhood friend sends Lyca searching her house's mysterious attic, with its strange collection of old medical equipment, piles of paperwork, and dusty boxes of ancient video games. There, she unearths secrets hidden for decades-secrets perhaps better left unknown.

Catherine Airey's haunting debut spins a mesmerizing story of family and fate, survival and revelation, examining the irresistible gravity of the past-how it endures through generations, pervasively present even when buried or forgotten.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Confessions is a remarkable debut. A complex and compulsive read that unravels the intricate twists and revelations among three generations of women with elegance and urgency." — Miranda Cowley Heller, New York Times bestselling author of The Paper Palace

“I was mesmerized from the very first pages of Catherine Airey’s startling debut, Confessions. The story of Maire and Roisin, two Irish sisters living an ocean apart, proceeds with an almost hypnotic power and grace – it has the certainty of fable and the true originality of a powerful new voice in fiction.” — Tara Conklin, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Romantics

“A sweeping story that spans both generations and continents, Catherine Airey’s Confessions is, at its heart, about the desire to know ourselves and those who came before us as well as an exploration of the mystery that lies at the heart of love. A bold and ambitious debut from a remarkable new writer.” — Daisy Alpert Florin, author of My Last Innocent Year

"Brilliantly conceived and magnificently executed, I truly could not put it down. I haven’t come across as honest, truthful, compelling, and gripping a writer for decades. The work of a debut novelist that feels like the work of a seasoned and highly accomplished author."
— Anna Fitzgerald, author of Girl in the Making

"Confessions is a tender and bitingly original work that effortlessly weaves the parochial weight of Irish family history with the mendacious allure of Manhattan’s seedy streets. Catherine Airey reads like a natural successor to Maeve Brennan, a chronicler of the pain and peril of self-determination." — Darragh McKeon, author of Remembrance Sunday

"Exciting, expansive and transporting storytelling. It's hard to believe Confessions is a debut novel." — Roxy Dunn, author of As Young As This

"Catherine Airey’s Confessions is a wonderfully moreish feast of family drama, flowing prose, and psychologically compelling characters. I devoured this remarkable debut that charts the lives of three generations of women and their intense, interior lives. Gracefully plotted with sentences that glide along, it’s a book that rollercoasters with secrets and revelations, exploring love and desire; longing and belonging. Airey’s novel has the complex yet deeply human undertones and poetry of Anne Enright combined with the effortless flow and vim of Louise Kennedy. I absolutely adored this novel and will be reading all future books by this immensely talented author."  — Rupert Dastur, author of Cloudless

Product Details

BN ID:	2940192707418
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	01/14/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged