Synopsis
Winner of the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize
Winner of the Sunday Independent Best Newcomer Award
Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book of the Year
Solace by Belinda McKeon is a dazzling story of love, family and divided loyalties.
Mark Casey did not expect to fall in love. But from the minute he saw Joanne Lynch across the garden of a Dublin pub, it seemed that nothing else was possible.
But Mark is also drawn back – guiltily – to his family and the land they have farmed for generations, and when he discovers the truth behind a family feud, it threatens to destroy this passionate love affair.
‘A novel of quiet power, filled with moments of carefully told truth’ - Colm Tóibín, author of Long Island
‘Elegant, consuming and richly inspired. Superb’ - Colum McCann, author of Apeirogon
Part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.
Details
06 November 2025
9781035063840Reviews
McKeon demonstrates a real wisdom in this book which will appeal to readers both young and old, and a command of style and structure which will make this a much-loved and a treasured book by readers everywhereColm Tóibín, author of Long Island
A story told with clear-eyed compassion and quiet intelligence about what it is to grow up and grow away, about the difference between “here” and “home”. Solace lives up to its title: this is a lovely debutAnne Enright, author of The Gathering
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 cultivatingThe Sunday Times
Powerful and beautifully paced. It’s a revealing portrait of contemporary Irish life with a cast of convincing, complicated, real characters. I was totally grippedCatherine O’Flynn, author of What Was Lost
