Fiction, World Literature, Fiction Subjects, Peoples & Cultures - Fiction
Available on Bookshop
Write a review
Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Log in to track your reading progress.
Overview
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Ria seems to have become quite a hostess, entertaining half the neighborhood, which at first irritates the reserved and withdrawn Marilyn, a woman who has always guarded her privacy.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.Synopsis
A Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club
New York Times bestselling author Maeve Binchy has captured the hearts of millions with her unforgettable novels. Binchy's graceful storytelling and wise compassion have earned her the devotion of fans worldwide—and made her one of the most beloved authors of our time. Now she dazzles us once again with a new novel filled with her signature warmth, humor, and tender insight. A provocative tale of family heartbreak, friendship, and revelation,Tara Road explores every woman's fantasy: escape, into another place, another life. "What if..." Binchy asks, and answers in her most astonishing novel to date.
Seattle Times
A total immersion in a colorful new world where the last page comes too soon.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
On the strength of novels such as Evening Class, The Glass Lake, and Circle of Friends, Maeve Binchy certainly qualifies as one of Ireland's best known and bestselling exports. Her latest novel, Tara Road, is the story of two women -- one Irish, one American, both struggling to overcome personal tragedies -- who agree to swap houses for the summer. Ria and her husband, Danny, live in a magnificent old house they have restored together. But her posh Dublin address loses much of its charm when Danny leaves her for his young, pregnant girlfriend. A chance phone call from grief-stricken Marilyn in New England provides both women with a welcome refuge from their shattered lives. But in exchanging houses, they also unwittingly take on aspects of each other's vastly different lives -- not always without new conflict. Though literally an ocean apart, when the two women at last meet face-to-face at summer's end, they find that they have not only learned each other's deepest secrets, but that they have become good friends.Newsday
A tender novel of the pleasures and pitfalls of friendship, sure to delight.New York Times
A remarkably gifted writer.Philadelphia Inquirer
The incomparable Maeve Binchy proves that storytelling is all.Seattle Times
A total immersion in a colorful new world where the last page comes too soon.Wall Street Journal
Engrossing...hard to put down...a saga of love, sex, money and intrigue.Cleveland Plain-Dealer
A writer blessed with extraordinary talent, insight, and compassion.Washington Post
Reading one of Maeve Binchy's novels is like coming home.Cleveland Plain-Dealer
A writer blessed with extraordinary talent, insight, and compassion.USA Today
Tara Road is good storytelling...Binchy's books are big, her boys are backsliders, her heroines are spirited.Darina Molloy
...[E]xactly the kind of warm, human tale we have come to expect from the bestselling author....Her characters, as always, are very real...—Irish America Magazine
Amy Waldman
...[No] fairy tale...just a great deal of growth and friendship and hard-won strength.—People Magazine
Library Journal
Fans of beloved Irish writer Binchy (Evening Class) will be transported to reader's heaven by her latest. With words, she paints sensitive portraits of a variety of women connected by a Dublin address: Tara Road. Dubliner Ria Lynch, cheerily domestic wife and mother, suffers from a series of betrayals dealt by her charming husband. Meanwhile, in Connecticut, Marilyn Vine's grief for her dead son transforms her into a cold, unloving person. These two strangers seize an opportunity to swap homes for a summer, each crossing an ocean to look for a way to begin again. As the two very different women inherit one anotherr's neighbors, families, and lifestyles, they discover their strengths and their futures. The novel's other characters are vividly drawn--the reader never has to stop to remember who is who. And Binchy adds a spark of magic: a fortuneteller serves as a thread connecting the characters through time. -- Carol J. Bissett, Dittlinger Memorial Library, New Braunfels, TexasThe New York Times
A remarkably gifted writer.The Washington Post
Reading one of Maeve Binchy's novels is like coming home.The Philadelphia Inquirer
The incomparable Maeve Binchy proves that storytelling is all.The Cleveland Plain-Dealer
A writer blessed with extraordinary talent, insight, and compassion.Newsday
A tender novel of the pleasures and pitfalls of friendship, sure to delight.The Seattle Times
A total immersion in a colorful new world where the last page comes too soon.Darina Molloy
...[E]xactly the kind of warm, human tale we have come to expect from the bestselling author....Her characters, as always, are very real...— Irish America Magazine
Amy Waldman
...[No] fairy tale...just a great deal of growth and friendship and hard-won strength.— People Magazine
Book Details
Published
July 1, 2000
Publisher
Random House Publishing Group
Pages
656
Format
Mass Market Paperback
ISBN
9780440235590