Author(s): Alan Murrin

General Fiction

'Alan Murrin writes with the calm, poetic fluency of the best of Irish writers ... A stonkingly good novel. Just read it' SARAH WINMAN, bestselling author of Still Life

'It will no doubt be a bestseller' GILLIAN ANDERSON, GRAZIA

It's 1994 in County Donegal, Ireland, and everyone is talking about Colette Crowley the writer, the bohemian, the woman who left her husband and sons to pursue a relationship with a married man in Dublin. But now Colette is back, and nobody knows why. Returning to the community to try and reclaim her old life, Colette quickly learns that they are unwilling to give it back to her. The man to whom she is still married is denying her access to her children, and while the legalisation of divorce might be just around the corner, Colette finds herself caught between her old life and the freedom for which she risked everything.

Desperate to see her children, she enlists the help of Izzy, a housewife and mother of two, and the women forge a friendship that will send them on a spiralling journey one toward a path of self-discovery, and the other toward tragedy.

Brilliantly observed from a sharp new literary talent, The Coast Road is a novel about a closed community and the consequences of daring to move against the tide.

MATILDA BOOKSHOP REVIEW

The Coast Road by Alan Murrin

In the 90s in Ireland there was no such thing as divorce. Colette Crowley dared to leave her husband and run off to Dublin with a married man. This story is about her return to her small hometown and her husband and children. Both heartbreaking and empathetic, Alan Murrin has beautifully conveyed the limitations put on women only a generation ago. JO