The Home Scar

Picks at the wounds only a mother can inflict . . . ambitious . . . intricate * Sunday Independent * Wonderful -- Brendan O'Connor Such a treat . . . another stunner from Kathleen MacMahon -- Henrietta McKervey Thoughtful, understated . . . it has a quiet power * Irish Independent * With her usual effortless writing style and ability to make characters pop off the page, [The Home Scar] is a moving read * Woman's Way * Perfectly echoing the wistful, windswept landscape of its setting, The Home Scar is a quiet and bleakly beautiful book. Like the siblings and Ireland, it will leave a permanent mark on those who venture into its depths * Buzz * A gorgeous story of sibling love. It reads like a psychological adventure story into memory. I thoroughly enjoyed following Cassie and Christo's quest to discover the tangled roots of a past that binds them together -- Louise Nealon A powerful story about legacy and loss and the possibility of reconciliation * Irish Times * An exceptional novel by one of Ireland's foremost literary talents. A book not to be missed -- Anne Griffin An intriguing, meticulous and generation-spanning story of love, loss and healing . . . readers will be surprised and delighted -- Ed O'Loughlin 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 MacMahon writes with such beautiful simplicity, conjuring real and complex people straight off the page. As we are discovering who Cassie and Christo are, so they are discovering who their mother really was. Subtle and authentic -- Claire Fuller A spell-binding story of inherited grief and the unbreakable bond between siblings as they unpick memories of their shared past. McMahon writes about landscape with painterly precision, her characters feel authentic and relatable for all their flaws -- Aingeala Flannery 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 A deftly realized and persuasive meditation on how our past never quite relinquishes our present, The Home Scar once again displays Kathleen MacMahon's gimlet-eyed understanding of grown-up frailty -- Hilary Fannin A delight - I loved every word of it -- Catherine Dunne Her beautifully simple style belies psychological complexity . . . and her tone is wryly accepting * Big Issue * [MacMahon's] exploration of connection, to each other and the ones we've lost, is . . . sensitively done and wrapped in the rich storytelling that has made her a notable name in Irish literature * RTÉ Guide * A love story to the west of Ireland as much as it is a family mystery, this beautifully written novel will entrance anyone who has memories of childhood holidays spent in the area. -- Liadán Hynes * Sunday Independent * I'm a long-term admirer of her prose. An exceptional novel about a brother and sister returning to the west of Ireand and to a summer of their past. -- Anne Griffin * Sunday Independent * MacMahon's fourth novel ... is another eloquently written and elegantly shaped novel that lays bare those scars that many of us carry and cover. * RTÉ Guide * An understated, powerful read. * Irish Examiner *