I was resistant to this book initially. It is set largely in 1975, off the west of Ireland. There are wild seas and judgmental islanders, and a disgraced woman who is too fond of sex and a man who won’t love her because of that. But what unfolds is an engaging story with a well-crafted sense of time and place, and a host of deeply flawed characters who rarely behave as one might expect. Laura, orphaned at a young age, believes she is saved from her claustrophobic life when she is taken in as a housekeeper by a gentle couple on the mainland who are fond of dancing around their kitchen. She believes she has finally found a kind place for herself in the world. Her respite is short-lived, however. Laura starts out as a wild and bohemian character, but her nature soon reveals itself to be altogether darker and less sympathetic. A sense of her despair so pervades the rain-soaked story that when someone suggests she try medication to balance herself, this reader could not help but think, Please God, yes – for all our sakes.
