Synopsis
Every Friday night Tom Fitzgerald's lilac-coloured minibus is a meeting place for the same cast of seven, who use it to travel home from Dublin to spend the weekend in Rathdoon. Disparate characters, who embark at an anonymous pick-up point, each one has an inner life unknown to his or her fellow passengers...
These eight short stories, all linked by the common theme of the lilac bus, are woven together by the warmth and compassion that typifies Maeve Binchy's writing.
Maeve Binchy was born in Co. Dublin and went to school at Holy Child Convent in Killiney. Several of her books have been adapted for television and cinema, most notably Circle of Friends. Quentins, Light a Penny Candle and Nights of Rain and Stars are among her novels available as Chivers Audiobooks.
Kate Binchy's stage appearances include Factory Girls, Deep Blue Sea, and Juno and the Paycock at the Lyceum. On TV she has been seen in Doctors, Trial & Retribution V, Fair City, Father Ted and Poirot, while...
Publishers Weekly
In the first eight interrelated stories of the dozen that comprise her new collection, Binchy (Circle of Friends) introduces eight people who travel on a lilac-colored bus from Dublin every Friday night to spend the weekend in their hometown, Rathdoon. Each of the seven passengers and the bus driver is the protagonist of an individual story; taken together, the tales have the cohesion of a novelette. Though these people have known one another for years, they are totally unaware of the compulsions, anxieties, heartaches and dreams of their fellow travelers. As is gradually revealed, everyone on the bus has a secret; thus the stories have the pull of taffy: having finished one, the reader is hooked on discovering the essence of yet another protagonist's existence. Each story delivers a kick of surprise--and often more than one--as Binchy peels back the layers of her characters' lives with empathy, compassion and not a little humor. In the process, the tales coalesce to portray the social order of Rathdoon. The last four stories are set in Dublin, with a new, equally engrossing cast. Although the pieces differ widely in social setting and circumstance, each features a woman who learns the strength of her mettle through adversity. This gallery of memorable characters again confirms Binchy as a beguiling raconteur.