My Coney Island Baby - Hardcover

O'Callaghan, Billy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062856561 ISBN 13: 9780062856562

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2019

Synopsis

An exquisite, heart-breaking novel by an Irish discovery.

Radiant with beauty, longing, and desire, and deeply touching, this literary novel, reminiscent of the works of William Trevor and Colm Tóibín, evokes the long love affair between a man and a woman, each married to another, who meet every month in a decaying hotel in Coney Island, Brooklyn.

On a bitterly cold winter&;s afternoon, Michael and Caitlin, two middle-aged lovers, escape their unhappy marriages to keep an illicit date. Once a month for the past quarter of a century, Coney Island has been their haven, the place in which they have abandoned themselves to their love.

These beautiful, carefully-rationed days have long sustained Michael and Caitlin&;s love, and have helped help them survive the tedium of their lives separate from each other. But now, amid the howling winds whipping off the Atlantic, and a snow storm blackening the horizon, this nearly abandoned resort feels like the edge of the world. On this winter day, burrowed in their private cocoon, they will discover that their lives are on the brink of change.

Michael&;s wife is battling cancer, and Caitlin&;s husband is about to receive a major promotion, which will involve relocating to the Midwest. After half a lifetime together in their most intimate moments, certain long-denied facts must be faced, decisions made, consequences weighed and, maybe, just maybe, chances finally taken.

A quiet, intense depiction of love and intimacy, My Coney Island Baby reveals, within the course of a single day&;s passing, the histories, landscapes, tragedies and occasional moments of wonder that constitute the lives of two people who, although living worlds apart, have been inexorably drawn together. But even in this most private of retreats, a place seemingly built for romance, the most heartbreaking of realities loom.

About this title

From the Back Cover

On a bitterly cold winter afternoon, Michael and Caitlin, two middle-aged lovers, escape their unhappy marriages to keep an illicit date. Once a month for the past quarter of a century, Coney Island has been their haven: the place in which they have abandoned themselves to their love.

These beautiful, carefully rationed days have long sustained Michael and Caitlin&;s love, and have helped them survive the tedium of their lives when separate from each other. But now, amid the howling winds whipping off the Atlantic and a snowstorm blackening the horizon, this nearly abandoned resort feels like the edge of the world. On this winter day, burrowed in their private cocoon, they will discover that their lives are on the brink of change.

Michael&;s wife is battling cancer, and Caitlin&;s husband is about to receive a major promotion that will involve relocating to the Midwest. After half a lifetime together in their most intimate moments, certain long-denied facts must now be faced, decisions made, consequences weighed, and maybe, just maybe, chances finally taken.

A quiet, intense depiction of love and intimacy, My Coney Island Baby reveals, within the course of a single day&;s passing, the histories, landscapes, tragedies, and occasional moments of wonder that constitute the lives of two people who, although living worlds apart, have been inexorably drawn together. But even in this most private of retreats, a place seemingly built for romance, the most heartbreaking of realities looms.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0062856561
• ISBN 13: 9780062856562
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 244