Debut Novel from Sharon Guard

… stunning debut … Guard’s prose is pacy, her characters visceral, their internal and external narratives enthralling in equal measure, while the searing desperation of young Ailish will have you primitively clutching your gut. The Irish Times

… This debut novel takes a surgeon’s scalpel to slice into the hypocrisy of late 20th century Mother Ireland, her secrets and her lies. It just might sweep the boards this year. Irish Independent

… a layered exploration of memory, motherhood, identity, guilt and freedom, and the stories – and different selves – we hold onto. Image

Ailish McCarthy is not doing well. Outwardly successful – career, beautiful home, wealthy husband, two daughters reared and on the cusp of their own lives– inwardly she is crumbling. 

Her relationship with her mother was complicated and difficult, the grief following her death unnaturally prolonged. As much as she wants to move forward, Ailish is caught in a spiral with her ghosts. 

In order to escape them, she must resolve her past. Revisit it. Construct again, from memory, the family and friends who shaped her, the boy she could not forget, the changing Ireland which provided the backdrop for their lives. 

Under the guidance of her therapist, Ailish begins the process of examining her previous selves: anxious child, traumatized teenager, adult woman riven with a never-to-be-shared secret. From these uniquely broken shards, can she assemble a present self, a whole self, one she can live with?