An extraordinarily moving and expansive debut novel that follows three generations of women from New York to rural Ireland and back again

It is late September in 2001 and the walls of New York are papered over with photos of the missing. Cora Brady’s father is there, the poster she made taped to columns and bridges. Her mother died long ago and now, orphaned on the cusp of adulthood, Cora is adrift and alone. Soon, a letter will arrive with the offer of a new life: far out on the ragged edge of Ireland, in the town where her parents were young, an estranged aunt can provide a home and fulfil a long-forgotten promise. There the story of her family is hidden, and in her presence will begin to unspool...

An essential, immersive debut from an astonishing new voice, Confessions traces the arc of three generations of women as they experience in their own time the irresistible gravity of the past: its love and tragedy, its mystery and redemption, and, in all things intended and accidental, the beauty and terrible shade of the things we do.

‘Beautiful, captivating and urgent... Confessions accomplishes something that is quite extraordinary by bringing the old Ireland into conversation with the new through a set of unforgettable characters, each one as fascinating and compelling as the next. There before me I found unfolding the Ireland that is a place where one could feel a sense of belonging and home, yet with it the Ireland that was capable of cruelty towards its girls and women that has left many of us who carry memories of those times still looking for home... Brilliantly conceived and magnificently executed, I truly could not put it down. I haven’t come across as honest, truthful, compelling, and gripping a writer for decades. The work of a debut novelist that feels like the work of a seasoned and highly accomplished author’ Anna Fitzgerald, author of GIRL IN THE MAKING