If you read one Irish novel this month then make it this one

For Niamh Ryan, the Foleys are family. Her childhood flew by on their farm, playing with her best friend Peter and his sister Kate - all the while being doted on by their mother Helen and coached by their father Liam, a legendary former hurling player. Now, following a distressing series of events, the family ties are strained. Niamh receives drunken phone calls and messages from Peter, who can't understand what derailed their burgeoning relationship three years ago. 

Meanwhile, Helen Foley is trying her best to escape her life by checking into guesthouses under the names of women she went to school with. In her life in Belfast, Kate is attempting to hold down a job and a relationship while carrying the weight of the family's secrets and feeling like she is the one to blame. As a family wedding looms, and the women find themselves face to face, the knotty love that still binds Niamh, Helen and Kate might just bring them back together again. Told through the perspectives of three very different women, Everything That Is Beautiful unfolds the story of one complicated family in startlingly honest prose. By turns funny and deeply moving, and with unmatched emotional intelligence, this is an unforgettable story of love and family, heartbreak and hope - and who we might become after we pick up the pieces.

This is a story that perfectly captures the complexities of a ‘close-knit’ family. It’ll both break your heart and later give you back some hope. Niamh and the Foleys truly feel like a family that lives across the road from you, and it’s a credit to Louise Nealon’s writing that these characters feel so life-like and relatable in parts. Louise Nealon is on her way to becoming one of our greatest authors, and I cannot wait to see what she does next.