Tara Road - Hardcover

Binchy, Maeve

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385335121 ISBN 13: 9780385335126

Publisher: Delacorte Pr, 1999

Synopsis

Ria lived on Tara Road in Dublin with her dashing husband, Danny, and their two children.  She fully believed she was happily married, right up until the day Danny told her he was leaving her to be with his young, pregnant girlfriend.  By a chance phone call, Ria meets Marilyn, a woman from New England unable to come to terms with her only son's death and now separated from her husband.  The two women exchange houses for the summer with extraordinary consequences, each learning that the other has a deep secret that can never be revealed.

Drawn into lifestyles vastly differing from their own, at first each resents the news of how well the other is getting on.  Ria seems to have become quite a hostess, entertaining half the neighborhood, which at first irritates the reserved and withdrawn Marilyn, a woman who has always guarded her privacy.  Marilyn seems to have become bosom friends with Ria's children, as well as with Colm, a handsome restaurateur, whom Ria has begun to miss terribly.  At the end of the summer, the women at last meet face-to-face.  Having learned a great deal, about themselves and about each other, they find that they have become, firmly and forever, good friends.

A moving story rendered with the deft touch of a master artisan, Tara Road is Maeve Binchy at her very best--utterly beautiful, hauntingly unforgettable, entirely original, and wholly enjoyable.

About this title

Review:

One assumes that Maeve Binchy's fiction--always on the bestseller list--is sold mainly to women: the broader canvas of politics, business and legal matters don't seem to engage her interest. She's at her best in the intimate minutiae of domestic life--hopes and dreams, matters of the heart--and she's well served by her cousin Kate, who narrates her audio books with immense skill and conviction. Tara Road is in Dublin, where Ria has created an exquisite home for her adored husband Danny and her two children. Her kitchen is a warm, convivial meeting place for family and friends, but Danny seems too busy to enjoy it. To coax him back into the family circle, Ria suggests they have another baby, whereupon he confesses that he's in love with a teenage girl whom he's made pregnant, and with whom he intends to live. Realising that she's been living in a fool's paradise, Ria arranges a house exchange with a New Englander whose marriage is also on the rocks: a month in someone else's life should free them both from their misery. But the reality is more complicated, because the women have not been entirely open with each other. Skeletons emerge from cupboards, and while some characters lose out, others rise like phoenixes from the ashes of their former lives. Welcome to Binchy's variegated world. --Betty Tadman

Review:

An irresistible tale (ELLE)

Two women, one from Dublin one from New England, end up on a house swap for the summer and find their lives changed for ever. Another tale with strong female characters and the importance of friendship. As always there are a host of characters to keep the interest going and plenty to make the reader question the nature of relationships (LOVE READING)

A tender novel of the pleasures and pitfalls of friendship, TARA ROAD is an ultra-modern
love story for women, about women, between women that is sure to delight

(NEWSDAY)

Engrossing (WALL STREET JOURNAL)

About this edition

• Publisher: Delacorte Pr
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0385335121
• ISBN 13: 9780385335126
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 502