The Home Scar

'The home scar - that's what they call the mark limpets make on the rock when they return.''Wait, they leave the rock?''Of course. How else would they survive?On opposite sides of the world, half-siblings Cassie and Christo have built their lives around work, intent on ignoring their painful past.When a dramatic storm in Galway hits the headlines, they're drawn back there to revisit a glorious childhood summer, the last before their mother died. But their journey uncovers memories of a far less happy summer - one that had tragic consequences.Confronted with the havoc their mother left in her wake, Cassie and Christo are forced to face their past and - ready or not - to deal with the messy tangle of parental love and neglect that shaped them.The Home Scar is a luminous and precise story about the inheritance of loss and the possibility of finally making peace with it._________'A powerful story about legacy and loss and the possibility of reconciliation' Irish Times'Her beautifully simple style belies psychological complexity . . . and her tone is wryly accepting' Big Issue'Subtle and authentic' Claire Fuller'A gorgeous story of sibling love. I thoroughly enjoyed following Cassie and Christo's quest to discover the tangled roots of a past that binds them together' Louise Nealon'Kathleen MacMahon's subject is memory itself: how we remember - and the impact upon our future lives when our memories deceive us. Compassionate and poignant, The Home Scar is a work of considerable moral power' Neil Hegarty'An exceptional novel by one of Ireland's foremost literary talents. A book not to be missed' Anne Griffin'A very grown-up novel about life and love, of course, and above all, the repercussions of a disrupted childhood . . . a real tour de force' Christine Dwyer Hickey'Picks at the wounds only a mother can inflict . . . ambitious . . . intricate' Sunday Independent