Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell

Few books effect me enough to blog about them. Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell is one of those books. I’ve been raving about it to anyone who will listen.

The novel is set in Dublin and features a young woman, Ciara, who is being coercively controlled by her husband, Ryan. One day she’s had enough and, on the spur of the moment, bundles her young daughters into the car, along with a random selection of belongings, and drives away. She escapes one unbearable situation but arrives in another. She has little money, no job, nowhere to stay and her family are in England. And Ryan is relentless in his quest to get her back or to win custody of the children he’s shown little interest in, until now. 
Ciara’s strength of spirit is tested to its limit as she navigates creating a home for her children in a hotel room, finding a job and facing the demons in her head.

The writing is wonderful, evocative and emotional. This is fiction but for me the book was heavy with real life. It paints such an authentic picture of the lives of families forced to live in a hotel room because of the lack of emergency social housing. Before reading Nesting, these families were just statistics to me but now they have a voice, a face and my respect.
Nesting is not holiday reading but it will leave you with a new perspective on coercive control, homeless families and the strength of maternal love.

Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell is available on Kindle, in paperback, hardback and audiobook. (And I’m not on commission!) Or try your local library – which is where I borrowed my copy.

If you’ve read the book, do leave a comment – I’d love to know what you thought?