Unprepared for the chaos that the two children inevitably bring, but nervously excited nonetheless, Annie finds the interruption of her normal life and her last chance at happiness complicated further by the attention being paid to Sarah by a local man with his eye on the farm.
A summer of adventure, pain, delight, and, ultimately, epiphany unfolds for both the children and their caretakers in this poignant and exquisitely told story of innocence, loss, and reconciliation.
"A subtle but powerful novel of a spinster's life in the Irish countryside rises to great emotional heights...this is a deliciously poetic book."—The Washington Post
"Barry has given us a heroine of delicate complexity in a setting of rugged beauty. His flawless use of language and plot hold the reader rapt from beginning to end. —Jeanne Ray, Boston Herald
"Superb...Annie emerges from the novel as one o fthe most memorable women in Irish fiction."—San Francisco Chronicle
"As a wordsmith, Barry is at times amazing, his descriptions poetic and insightful."—The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Rarely has the precious interaction between the old and the young been captured in such beauty and tenderness...a remarkable novel."—The Christian Science Monitor
"Lyrical."—The Miami Herald
"Barry's gift for image and metaphor...are equaled here by his eye for descriptive detail."—Publishers Weekly
Unprepared for the chaos that the two children inevitably bring, but nervously excited nonetheless, Annie finds the interruption of her normal life and her last chance at happiness complicated further by the attention being paid to Sarah by a local man with his eye on the farm.
A summer of adventure, pain, delight, and, ultimately, epiphany unfolds for both the children and their caretakers in this poignant and exquisitely told story of innocence, loss, and reconciliation.
"A subtle but powerful novel of a spinster's life in the Irish countryside rises to great emotional heights...this is a deliciously poetic book."—The Washington Post
"Barry has given us a heroine of delicate complexity in a setting of rugged beauty. His flawless use of language and plot hold the reader rapt from beginning to end. —Jeanne Ray, Boston Herald
"Superb...Annie emerges from the novel as one o fthe most memorable women in Irish fiction."—San Francisco Chronicle
"As a wordsmith, Barry is at times amazing, his descriptions poetic and insightful."—The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Rarely has the precious interaction between the old and the young been captured in such beauty and tenderness...a remarkable novel."—The Christian Science Monitor
"Lyrical."—The Miami Herald
"Barry's gift for image and metaphor...are equaled here by his eye for descriptive detail."—Publishers Weekly