Solace - Softcover

'A sparely written book of huge emotional power... Solace brings alive the rural experience and the conflicting values of contemporary Ireland, but is also a richly compelling love story' --Sunday Independent

`Compelling... A profound and exacting conjuration with the psycho-social shifts taking place in contemporary Ireland... The poetic sinuousness of McKeon's style deftly insinuates the reader into the emotional worlds of her characters which are outlined with unflinching clarity and a winning compassion. Solace , in sum, is an assured and poised debut, at once a moving and gracefully etched story of human loss and interconnection set in contemporary Ireland and a deeply affecting meditation on being in the world' --Irish Times

`A fine example of the modern Irish novel... An irrepressible power runs through the finely crafted text... The writing, transitions and branching narratives are honed to a fine point... This is a beautifully small story that loses none of its intimacy by encompassing the breadth of a country and acknowledging an entire generation' --Sunday Times Ireland

`The juxtaposition of urban and rural Ireland is very effective... A compelling story of how the adult family unit renegotiates itself. There is no denying McKeon's talent' --Irish Independent

`It's difficult to imagine a novel being more permeated by the preoccupations of Irish culture and more conscious of its location within an Irish literary tradition than Belinda McKeon's debut. Solace is about a lot of things - love, grief, parenthood, friendship, the struggles for self-definition and intellectual autonomy - but at its core is a theme that has animated many of this country's most enduring fictions: the endlessly problematic relationship between older and younger generations... Eloquent precision is everywhere in the novel... McKeon has obviously learned a great deal from the likes of McGahern and Colm Tóibín, but she has taken the lessons of these masters and constructed something that, though it may not be entirely new, is very much her own'
--Sunday Business Post

`Accomplished... Thoughtful and intelligent... A work steeped in verisimilitude, whose integrity is palpable and its concerns clear-cut' --Times Literary Supplement

'[A] beautiful first novel... A remarkable new voice' --The Times

'An excellent musing on families and relationships... Ms McKeon's real strength lies in portraying the slow burn of kinship... She hooks the reader with words unsaid; stolen glances; simmering anger - which hold the heaviness of a lifetime of buried emotion, but also of unconditional love... Solace is a warm and wise debut from a new literary talent' --Economist

'Belinda McKeon has already established herself as a playwright and arts journalist in both Ireland and America, and now her anticipated first novel arrives complete with endorsements from some of the great figures of Irish letters. Solace does not disappoint, and in it we feel a young writer carefully negotiating her relationship to her native Ireland and to its literary traditions... She writes with a precision that is moving without being sentimental. She is superb on the inarticulate coming-to-terms between a father and his son. Patient to a fault, this author demands patience from her reader, but it is the kind of patience that is worth cultivating' --Sunday Times

'Intensely controlled, [a] fine first novel'
--Guardian

As tender as it is heartbreaking, a brilliant debut from an exciting new voice in Irish fiction