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Solace

3.43 of 5 stars 3.43 · rating details · 333 ratings · 63 reviews

Mark Casey has left home, the rural Irish community where his family has farmed the same land for generations, to study for a doctorate in Dublin, a vibrant, contemporary city full of possibility. To his father, Tom, who needs help baling the hay and ploughing the fields, Mark's pursuit isn't work at all, and indeed Mark finds himself whiling away his time with pubs and pa...more

Hardcover, 341 pages

Published August 5th 2011 by Picador (first published 2011)

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History of a Pleasure Seeker by Richard Mason

Man Booker Prize Eligible 2011

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Nov 13, 2012 Fionnuala rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There were some very beautiful passages in this first novel set in modern-day Ireland and which tells a story of inter-generational conflict and inter-family rivalry.
The rural scenes worked best for me and I wanted more of those.
I liked the sub-plot about the eighteenth century author, Maria Edgeworth and was eager for it to be woven more satisfyingly into the main plot.
Here are some passages, which give an idea of the promise in Belinda McKeon’s writing:

“But, then, just as quickly, they loo...more There were some very beautiful passages in this first novel set in modern-day Ireland and which tells a story of inter-generational conflict and inter-family rivalry.
The rural scenes worked best for me and I wanted more of those.
I liked the sub-plot about the eighteenth century author, Maria Edgeworth and was eager for it to be woven more satisfyingly into the main plot.
Here are some passages, which give an idea of the promise in Belinda McKeon’s writing:

“But, then, just as quickly, they looked away, to the baby again, and they were focused tight in on her as though on a button they were trying to unfasten; pulling the white cap back down on her head, taking the little hands and hiding them under white cotton cuffs, touching the tiny, crumpled face and willing it to smooth contentment. And at that kind of willing, that kind of wishing, they would spend, probably, most of the rest of their days.”

“Those first years, when he was small, there was pleasure just in watching him among the animals, the fields, the sheds that, before him, had only meant work or money. To see this boy stride around the farm, even if he was hardly taller than the sheepdog, even if he was in short trousers and red wellingtons, even if had a head of curls like a girl; even for all this, the sight of him there was like a prayer lodged in the mind and answered with every thought.”

“Mark could see his reflection in the glass against the darkness; he looked hard-faced, he thought, wild-haired, his shoulders hunched.....He looked like one of the farmers who lived nearby....The same way of walking, the same way of standing, the same way of looking up slowly and assessing whatever met their eye - a woman, an engine, a sky.”

And a final one:
“Faced with this silence that was Keogh’s kindness, he felt only light and bloodless, emptied of himself and of everything that fixed him to his standing. He needed something to shoulder against, something at which to pitch himself, muscled with the old fury, with the old contempt. But there was nothing.”

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Feb 28, 2012 Bonnie Brody rated it 4 of 5 stars

Solace, by Belinda McKeon, is a novel about love and longing. As a noun, `solace' means to find comfort or consolation in a time of distress or sadness. As a verb, it means to give solace to someone else or oneself. This book is about people who find solace in the small things of this world and find it difficult to talk about the bigger things. They hang on to what they know, especially when they face tragedy or their worlds turn upside down.

Tom and Mark are father and son. Tom works his farm in...more Solace, by Belinda McKeon, is a novel about love and longing. As a noun, `solace' means to find comfort or consolation in a time of distress or sadness. As a verb, it means to give solace to someone else or oneself. This book is about people who find solace in the small things of this world and find it difficult to talk about the bigger things. They hang on to what they know, especially when they face tragedy or their worlds turn upside down.

Tom and Mark are father and son. Tom works his farm in Ireland and Mark is working on his doctorate at Trinity University in Dublin. Tom finds it difficult to understand a life that does not consist of working the land and he finds it very difficult to understand his son. Mark comes to his father's farm when he can to help out, usually on a weekend. There is a huge emotional distance between them and they often end up fighting. Maura, Mark's mother, tries to smooth things out but the gap between father and son is huge.

Mark meets a woman in Dublin named Joanne. Unfortunately, there is bad blood between Mark's father and Joanne's deceased father. This makes the relationship difficult for the family dynamics. When Joanne becomes pregnant, issues rise to the surface and even more distance is felt between Tom and Mark.

The novel takes place in the mid-2000's when Ireland is just beginning to go from a booming country to a place of poverty. What was once a land of opportunity for everyone is becoming a place where housing values are decreasing, unemployment is rising, and large companies are moving out of Ireland to cheaper venues.

Mark has been working on his dissertation for several years without much success. He chose to work on the topic of a woman writer who lived near his father's farm and to assess her writing and relationships with other writers of her time in a new way. His thesis advisor is not impressed and Mark makes one false start after another.

Symbolically, these false starts are similar to the attempts at conversations that Mark and his father have. They start and stop, try to meet one another at some common ground but fail. When tragedy befalls both of them, Tom becomes very dependent on Mark but Mark distances himself even further from his father, burying himself in his studies.

The prologue opens with Tom and Mark alone on the farm with a baby girl named Aiofe. There are no females present and Aiofe is very enamored of her grandfather. Tom takes Aiofe with him on errands he has to do in town and ends up in a grand discord with Tom who did not know where his daughter was. No matter how they try to bridge their distance, they fail. They can find no solace in one another when they are faced with tragedy or pain.

The solace that they have comes from what is familiar to each of them. For Tom it is his farm and the land, and for Mark it is his child and his studies. We readers sadly watch the fumbling attempts they each make to reach each other and the increasing distance that occurs. At one point, Tom gets a cell phone and attempts to call Mark several times a day. Mark makes it a point not to answer and Tom keeps calling.

This is a story of a father and son, of rural Ireland trying to maintain its identity, and the difference between living in a city and living on a farm. Tom can't understand cities and Mark abhors life on a farm. The book is very well-written but at times it goes very slowly, losing the pace that it might have carried. Belinda McKeon is a playwright and there is that sense of discourse in this novel. She has an MFA from Columbia University and this is her debut novel. She is a very promising novelist with a poetic sense and a gift with words. I especially love her characterization of Tom and Mark. I look forward to her future work.
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Jan 29, 2012 Ian Young rated it 4 of 5 stars

Solace is a novel about loss and the difficulty which so many people have communicating about important issues, particularly across generations. It is set against the background of Ireland in the early part of this century, at a time when rural areas continued to cling to traditional values and ways of life while brash modern Ireland epitomised by the Dublin property boom gradually began to impinge.

Mark Casey is a PhD student in Dublin, struggling with his thesis after losing enthusiasm for his...more Solace is a novel about loss and the difficulty which so many people have communicating about important issues, particularly across generations. It is set against the background of Ireland in the early part of this century, at a time when rural areas continued to cling to traditional values and ways of life while brash modern Ireland epitomised by the Dublin property boom gradually began to impinge.

Mark Casey is a PhD student in Dublin, struggling with his thesis after losing enthusiasm for his work. He is writing about a Victorian novelist who lived near the small farming village where he was brought up – she once seemed important to him, but now seems irrelevant and lacking in interest. His parents, particularly his farmer father, cannot really understand what he is doing and why he doesn’t come home more regularly to help run the family farm. In reality, Mark hates the farm only a little less than he has come to dislike his academic work, and avoids going home as much as possible.

In Dublin, Mark meets Joanne who comes from close to his home and whose family have ties to his own, though not good ones. Like Mark, she also has a badly damaged relationship with her parents. They quickly embark on a passionate relationship which is shattered by a tragic accident, and much of the book is concerned about how Mark deals with the aftermath of this.

Solace is a novel which is beautifully written and with a strong sense of place, particularly in relation to the farming and rural scenes. Right from the beginning there is a sense that something has gone badly wrong – the book begins with a section from relatively late in the story line before flashing back to tell events from the start. It is a serious novel – the story is downbeat and there is little to lift the mood – but a rewarding one to read. The ending is an open one, so don’t expect a nicely rounded conclusion. The characters are convincing, and there are some very moving sequences. There were scenes when I felt that a key revelation was about to come, a pivotal episode or phrase which would get to the core of the novelist's intention, but it never quite seemed to happen. In the end I felt that this was deliberate – because failure to communicate is probably the most important theme of this novel. For instance, Joanne writes a message in a book of Mark’s, thinking that he will discover it at some future date, but he never does. And when Mark visits one of Joanne’s old lecturers there is a strong sense that something important is about to be revealed, which never quite materialises.

Overall then, a strong first novel which should appeal to readers of literary fiction, and a young Irish writer to watch with interest.
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Jan 09, 2012 Marleen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mark Casey is a doctoral student in Dublin, struggling to find any enthusiasm for the thesis he is supposed to be writing while also trying to balance his father’s demands for help on the Longford farm with his own needs. While the gap between Mark and his father appears to be getting wider, his mother tries to keep a fragile peace between the two men.
Joanne Lynch is a trainee solicitor and the daughter of a man Mark’s father has considered an enemy ever since he was wronged by him twenty years...more Mark Casey is a doctoral student in Dublin, struggling to find any enthusiasm for the thesis he is supposed to be writing while also trying to balance his father’s demands for help on the Longford farm with his own needs. While the gap between Mark and his father appears to be getting wider, his mother tries to keep a fragile peace between the two men.
Joanne Lynch is a trainee solicitor and the daughter of a man Mark’s father has considered an enemy ever since he was wronged by him twenty years ago.
When Joanne and Mark meet at a party the attraction is instant and before long they are in the middle of a love affair. With their relationship still in its early stages, Joanne finds herself pregnant and before they’ve had a real chance to get to know each other, Mark and Joanne find themselves the parents of a baby girl.
Just when the new family are starting to find their feet and some balance in their lives, disaster strikes. In the subsequent months both Mark and his father have to reassess their lives and priorities in an effort to keep on living and moving forward.

This was a quiet and unsentimental story, although the emotions and feelings of the main characters are firmly at the centre of it. While the content of the story has all the makings of an emotional roller-coaster, the subdued tone in which the story is told means that those emotions are only implied. The reader has to dig deep to actually feel the love, pain and despair which the characters have to be going through in the context of the story.
This book deals with the contrasts between life in the city and in the country-side, between the traditional expectations of the older generation versus the hopes and dreams of the younger. The story succeeds very well in describing live and relations in small Irish towns, where everybody knows everything about everybody and nothing ever stays hidden. It also gives a realistic picture of the devastation a big loss has on a person’s life and how such a loss can lead to confusion about what is a priority or even what is normal behaviour.
I had a few, minor, issues with the story. For starters, I could at no point while reading sympathise with Mark. From the start of the book I wanted to tell him to grow up, make up his mind, make a decision and stick to it. For a 30 year old man he had very little idea of what he really wanted and never seemed to be able to make a real decision. I also wasn’t entirely sure about the ending of the book. It seemed to me that nothing had been resolved when I closed the book and that the issues that had been introduced at the start of the story where still unresolved.
Having said all of that, I was intrigued by the story, its characters and their lives. The characters were almost too realistically human in that they just muddled on and didn’t really face up to the issues in their lives. And the book was very well written. The language is beautiful and the words flow in such a way that I had a hard time putting the book down.
This is an ambitious and well written novel and a very promising debut by an author I know I will be following from now on.
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Sep 18, 2011 TheGirlBytheSeaofCortez rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-authors, irish-literature, literary-fiction

Solace, the debut novel from Irish poet and playwright Belinda McKeon, which has been getting a lot of attention lately, is a family drama, or more precisely, an exploration of the bonds and difficulties that exist between a father and a son. We initially encounter this particular father and son in a prologue that is really taken, not from the beginning of the book, but from its middle, a choice that’s partly good, and partly not-so-good.

The father is Tom Casey, a taciturn, hard-bitten, hard-wor...more

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Jun 15, 2011 Eleni rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had the privilege of reading some of this in workshop while I was getting my MFA at Columbia and I was so impressed by the writing then that I had to pre-order it before it came out. The characters are real and complex, flawed but sympathetic, but it's the overall voice that sweeps you up and carries you along. I am an emotional wimp under any circumstances and since I've been pregnant have been even more sensitive about not reading/watching/hearing things that might upset me. (The movie "Brid...more

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Feb 25, 2012 Her Royal Orangeness rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

You know those days when it rains and rains, unrelenting, making you feel miserable and bereft, making you forget that there is such a thing as sunshine and hope? That is the mood of “Solace.” Quiet. Grey. Melancholy.

“Solace” is Mark’s story. His struggles with his doctoral thesis. His struggles with his father and the responsibility he feels to help with his father’s farm. His relationship with a woman named Joanne. And when a tragedy occurs, it is about the darkness of Mark’s grief.

Communicat...more

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Oct 05, 2011 Kevin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: group-reads

It was ok. Nice story, but generally not my genre. I was more interested in Mark and his father as opposed to Mark and Joanne. This was possibly because the story itself began with Mark and Tom, so everyone else served no interest in me.

The story itself is beautiful, and was pretty much easy to read once you get into it (the key being 'getting into it')

The characters seemed real to me. In fact, I could easily visualise the characters, and relate with them. And I love how the story switches my im...more

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Apr 07, 2012 Michelle Dahl rated it 2 of 5 stars

I must admit that I feel a bit duped by the hype for this novel. It was nominated for the Orange Prize (UK award for best novel by female author written in English), and it received such glowing reviews from Colm Toibin and Ann Enright (The Gathering is wonderful), that I was convinced that this one would sing to my soul. Good job by Scribner marketing, I guess.

I did enjoy the novel to a certain extent. Tom Casey is a wonderful, well drawn character, and the scenes on the farm are vivid and poi...more

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Apr 06, 2012 Jennifer O'Connell rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a lyrical, and occasionally heartbreaking, family drama. At its heart is the story of the love affair between two people who grew up a few miles apart but didn't meet until they went to college (as you do). Anyone who went to college in Dublin in the 90s or naughties will identify with so much of the story, and she creates that whole world - pints in the Pav, half-remembered house parties, agonising meetings with your tutor - really effectively. If I'm being picky there are few little is...more

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Feb 13, 2012 Mary Lou rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: irish

Mark is trying to complete his thesis at Trinity in Dublin while being distracted by the 'good' student life, and at the time being emotionally blackmailed by his father to go down home at the weekends and help on the farm.

The novel studies the confrontational relationship between father and son, and the same time the developing relationship between Mark and a girl he meets at college who is from a small town near him.

The prologue is stunning- redolent of John McGahern, but the book does not pro...more

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Mar 20, 2013 Anne-Marie Scully rated it 5 of 5 stars

I grew up in a part of rural Ireland not far from where this book was set. It was the first time I had ever read a book where I felt like the characters were people I knew. This was a novelty for me and added to the enjoyment. The story centres on the relationship between a father and son. Although it was set in Ireland it could be anywhere and I think this is a story that will resonate with many people. There are times when you want to say to the son, 'go easy on your father' and then there are...more

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Feb 05, 2013 Joyce Hendricks McCague rated it 2 of 5 stars

I did not like this book. I found it very dry and boring. I almost gave it one star but decided to go with two because there were a few chapters here and there that held my interest. I found myself at first skipping sentences, and then glossing over paragraphs because in my opinion, there was more description than dialogue and the description was overdone and much of it unnecessary. Without giving anything away, I would have preferred the tragedy take place earlier in the book and have more stor...more

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Oct 31, 2011 Lindsay (Little Reader Library) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Mark Casey has gone from one way of life with his parents on their farm in rural Ireland, to the city life of Dublin, where he is an academic. He teaches part-time at Trinity and is working on his PhD about a writer, Maria Edgeworth, who came from the same area of Ireland as him. He visits his parents on occasional weekends and helps his father with the tasks on the farm. They have a difficult relationship; Mark knows that his father doesn’t understand the nature or point of his academic studies...more Mark Casey has gone from one way of life with his parents on their farm in rural Ireland, to the city life of Dublin, where he is an academic. He teaches part-time at Trinity and is working on his PhD about a writer, Maria Edgeworth, who came from the same area of Ireland as him. He visits his parents on occasional weekends and helps his father with the tasks on the farm. They have a difficult relationship; Mark knows that his father doesn’t understand the nature or point of his academic studies, whilst Tom, his father, is set in his ways and wishes Mark would be more involved in the farm, and sees that as Mark’s ‘proper’ future. This is one of the main conflicts, between father and son, past and future. As the novel commences, Mark is struggling to focus on his research, and it is whilst out drinking in Dublin with a friend and avoiding work, that he meets Joanne, a trainee solicitor, and they begin seeing each other. It emerges that there is in fact an interesting and turbulent history between their families. Then part way through the novel, two huge, unexpected events occur which will change all their lives forever. It’s hard to comment much further on the storyline from this point onwards without spoiling the plot for future readers.

This is a moving and impressive debut novel tinged with sadness, and it draws you in. The author captures accurately and beautifully the way relationships develop, with cleverly observed insights into relationships between new partners, between parents and children, and about everyone’s expectations of each other. It depicts the eternal misunderstandings and disappointments between generations; in fact this is what is very much at the heart of the novel. It deals with love, sadness and loss, and the demands of traditional versus modern lifestyles. The pace is slow and gentle, and then suddenly the author will deal a devastating blow. I keep thinking about the title, and where solace is found for the characters in the novel. It has been endorsed by Colm Toibin and I would certainly draw positive comparisons in the writing style between the work of his that I have read and this novel. If they are something you enjoy reading, you may enjoy this too.
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Jun 01, 2011 Julie Smith (Knitting and Sundries) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: galley, galley-grab, reviewed

This review first appeared on my blog: http://www.knittingandsundries.com/20...

This is the story of a generational and cultural divide between a father and his son. It is also the tale of a binding tragedy and the gulf of loneliness between them in today's Ireland, slowly sinking into poverty and hardship.

Tom is a farmer, married to Maura, a nurse. They have two grown children, Nuala, who is married and lives far enough off that her family rarely sees her, and Tom, who lives in Dublin, a perpetu...more This review first appeared on my blog: http://www.knittingandsundries.com/20...

This is the story of a generational and cultural divide between a father and his son. It is also the tale of a binding tragedy and the gulf of loneliness between them in today's Ireland, slowly sinking into poverty and hardship.

Tom is a farmer, married to Maura, a nurse. They have two grown children, Nuala, who is married and lives far enough off that her family rarely sees her, and Tom, who lives in Dublin, a perpetual student who has been working on his thesis for far too long, with a professor whose patience with him is running thin.

At the beginning of the novel, we can tell something very bad has happened - the kind of something bad that makes everyone treat a person with overabundant kindness and kid gloves. We then journey back to read about the events that led to this.

Tom is a stubborn, taciturn, hard-working farmer who is disappointed that Mark doesn't want to farm the land that will be his one day. He does not consider Mark's studies important (after all, he should have been done some time ago), and does not understand why Mark won't come down more often to help.

Mark is impatient with his father, and quietly resentful of Tom's attitude towards his studies and his demands on his time. When he meets a young woman named Joanne, and she quickly becomes pregnant, he is finally thrust into the role of a grown-up, but the situation with his father worsens because Joanne is the daughter of a man who perpetrated a great wrong against Tom, and the bad blood between the families simmers hot even now.

Although the writing here is impeccable, the story has quite a few places that could have been tightened down a bit; I found myself wanting to skip ahead to where something actually happens. The tension between Tom and Mark is exquisitely and painfully captured, but at the end of the book, I felt vaguely dissatisfied. I wish Tom could have been more fleshed-out, and I felt that there was no true resolution.

QUOTE (from a galley; may be different in final copy):

..when she told him she was keeping the baby, he was stunned by the relief that coursed through him. It was ludicrous, wanting it so much. He had no job. He had no money. No away of providing for a child. And with Joanne, he barely even had a relationship. The had been sleeping together for not much more than a month; how could she be pregnant?

Book Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Sensitive Reader: Some sex, profanity, and sexual references; however, there are no graphic sex scenes.(less)

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Mar 05, 2011 Jim added it · review of another edition

Shelves: ireland

A debut novel of love and loss set in contemporary Ireland, where a family’s troubled past cast its shadow over an uncertain future.

Looking for a distraction from writing his stalled thesis, Mark Casey falls for a green-eyed girl he meets at a pub. Joanne Lynch, however, is more than a pretty solicitor trainee, she comes from the same patch of rural farmland in County Longford where Mark grew up. The son of a demanding and truculent farmer, Mark resents the time he must take away from his studi...more

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Mar 21, 2012 Will rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I really enjoyed this book, but I'm having trouble articulating exactly what about it I found so captivating. The writing itself was simple and delicate; it somehow managed to be simultaneously sparse and vivid. The characters were relatable and sympathetic, yet flawed. In many respects, the story is unremarkable, but I think the beauty of the book lies in its subtlety. I am reminded of the closing line of Robert Walser's story "A Little Ramble." We don't need to see anything out of the ordinar...more

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May 18, 2013 Baireadn rated it 4 of 5 stars

This author's dialogue is exceptional. Its pitch perfect and with one line of dialogue between two of her characters you have a deep understanding of who they are, how they feel about each other, where they are and what their chances are.
The plot dips at times but overall this was an insightful novel. It captures a certain time and age group, and their dealing with the eternal tensions between rural and country, family ties and future possibilities in Ireland.

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Aug 22, 2011 T P Kennedy rated it 3 of 5 stars

An interesting work. I'm not sure that it lives up to the billing and the hype surrounding it. Some of the characterization is excellent - particularly Tom Casey. The book really comes alive when he's around. Other characters, though, seem to be mere ciphers to play a specific plot role. The sense of Dublin and students is good. The evocation of tragedy and the sense of solace are excellent but a little marred by various melodramas.

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Sep 26, 2011 Iuliana rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club

This is a very easy book to read and i really enjoyed the first half of the book. I liked the characters of Tom and Mark, but didn't care much for Joanne. I found the wrong parts of the story were developed, i.e. Joanne's case, Mark's thesis as well as the story around Joanne's former lecturer. I found these didn't serve as much purpose as possibly intended, and i found myself wanting to skip through to the parts where something actually happens.

I found the ending weak and I was annoyed at times...more

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Oct 30, 2012 Danielle rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book deals with the interplay between the generations, between town and country people and a simpler older world and the new world.

Well written, the characters and well developed and interesting. Mark's indecision about so many aspects of his life set against the simplicity of views from both his parents work well. His relationship with Joanne who is training to be a solicitor is beautifully covered. However, as is inevitable, things change and "accidents" happen - can any solace be found?

We...more

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Nov 20, 2011 Terri rated it 2 of 5 stars

Didn't like it much. The review for the book says the father and son were brought together through tragedy. I didn't see that they came together that much. It is a "relationship" book. Not really my genre either, not one I would have picked, I read it for a book club. If you like relational books with no real plot...that's all I'll say....you might like this book.

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May 07, 2012 Kristin Gleeson rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a quietly absorbing novel of contemporary Ireland that examines the relationships of two families and the impact loss brings on them. The skill of its writing and character development is what makes this novel such an engaging read. There are no big bells and whistles but it keeps the reader absorbed nonetheless.

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Aug 17, 2011 Ethel Rohan rated it 5 of 5 stars

I highly recommend this debut novel. It's expertly written, rich with prose and characterization. Perhaps I most admired how McKeon zoomed in close on tiny moments making them meaningful and memorable and pulled back from the most devastating moments in the book, making them bearable and all the more affecting and powerful.

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Aug 26, 2012 Marie rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book goes in the "mindless vacation read" file. I bought it because it won a prize in Ireland, but found the story unredeeming and the characters flat and stereotypical. Is there any significance to the topic of Mark's thesis, or was that just filler?

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Jun 22, 2012 Síle rated it 5 of 5 stars

A lot of reviewers of this book mentioned the way it reminded them of Dublin. For me it reminds me of my youth in the countryside and I could hardly put it down as a result. Every mention of claas balers, slatted sheds and father/son relationships brought back memories of another time. I loved every minute. But I'm aware it may not be for a lot of others!

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May 08, 2012 Sara marked it as to-read

Recommended on Prairie Schooner's podcast, "Air Schooner," by Nuala Ni Chonchuir as another Irish writer whose work she enjoys. Haven't read it yet, but it's on my list.

She also strongly recommended the work of Ann Enright, Roddy Doyle, and Martin Malone.

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May 21, 2012 Evelyn Walsh rated it 5 of 5 stars

http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layou...

Solace is an incredible debut novel - all characters are so well drawn and acutely observed. McKeon's prose is straightforward and seems effortless. I loved it.

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Apr 12, 2012 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book. Engaging characters. I didn't quite realise it would be about grief etc do that took me by surprise. I was sorry not to learn more about main characters initially but then got to know them retrospectively.

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Dec 11, 2012 Donna rated it 3 of 5 stars

i picked this off the bookshelves because i wanted to read something about ireland while i was here. i liked it, but the characters were sad. guess the title should have been some indication...

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Irish Readers: OCTOBER READ - Solace - Finished - May Contain Spoilers	10	22	Nov 28, 2011 01:06am
Irish Readers: OCTOBER READ - Solace - No Spoilers	11	24	Nov 02, 2011 05:08am
Irish Readers: Solace - An Introduction	7	16	Oct 13, 2011 12:45pm
Constant Reader: Solace by Belinda McKeon - Contains Spoilers	4	17	Sep 23, 2011 04:29am

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About Belinda Mckeon

Belinda McKeon was born in Ireland in 1979 and grew up in Co. Longford.

She studied English and Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin (BA) and University College, Dublin (MLitt), and has an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University.

Her debut novel, Solace, was published in 2011 by Scribner (US) and Picador (UK/Ireland/Australia) It was named a Kirkus Outstanding Debut of 2011 and was named Bord Gáis E...more

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11512137-solace?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327105761l/11512137.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11512137-solace?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Solace by Belinda Mckeon[/url]

Solace

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