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Vendor
Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English

NOTHING BUT BLUE SKY

Kathleen Macmahon

Is there such a thing as a perfect marriage? This novel is a precise and tender story of love in marriage - a gripping examination of what binds couples together and of what keeps them apart.
Is there such a thing as a perfect marriage?

David thought so. But when his wife Mary Rose dies suddenly he has to think again. In reliving their twenty years together David sees that the ground beneath them had shifted and he simply hadn't noticed. Or had chosen not to.

Figuring out who Mary Rose really was and the secrets that she kept - some of these hidden in plain sight - makes David wonder if he really knew her. Did he even know himself?

Nothing But Blue Sky is Kathleen MacMahon's third novel. Her first, This is How it Ends, published in 2012, was translated into more than twenty languages, spent five weeks at the top of the bestseller lists in Ireland, and was a Richard and Judy Book Club choice in the UK. Her second novel, The Long, Hot Summer was published to much acclaim in 2015 and was also a bestseller in Ireland. Kathleen is a former radio and television journalist with Ireland's national broadcaster, RTÉ, and she lives in Dublin with her family.
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Published 2020-07-30 by Penguin Books

Comments

I loved this slow unfolding of the history of a marriage. Nothing but Blue Sky is quiet and thoughtful and very moving.

A beautiful read... the writing is exquisite... there's barely a page without a description or a phrase that's worth re-reading... MacMahon's precise prose lifts the lid on the cliches and societal mores around our response to death, probing with a surgeon's skill at the rawness underneath...

Skilfully written with a wonderful lightness of touch

Explores the complexities of the human heart and reveals how even in the depths of grief, unexpected light can emerge.

A piece of perfection - a subtle, thought-provoking investigation of a marriage. It rings true. It's the best book I've read this year...

Full of humour and brims with the warmth of family, friendship and the possibility of second chances.

A tender dissection of a marriage

Sure and subtle, MacMahon holds the reader in her spell. She is a born storyteller.

The gently meandering style of Nothing But Blue Sky, one memory spinning off from another, works like slowly heating water round a lobster - you don't realise the punch until you're too settled in... MacMahon, who has made the Women's Prize longlist with this, her third novel, steers David's journey of revelation firmly, compassionately and convincingly, creating an utterly believable set of characters.

Longlisted for Women's Prize for Fiction 2021

...an acutely observed portrait of a relationship... the novel is full of beautiful prose, powerful metaphors and astute observations of human behaviour...

In prose that is elegant and understated, Kathleen MacMahon illuminates the life of this man, now stripped of his certainties and statistics, as he attempts come to terms with the extraordinary physicality of his grief...

A poignant, gentle and astutely observed novel about marriage and the evolution of love.

Its tragic theme is softened by MacMahon's tender-hearted storytelling and the effect is touching and enthralling.

David is a wonderfully convincing character, and although this painfully acute portrait of grief has moments of bleakness, it's also full of humour and brims with the warmth of family, friendship and the possibility of second chances...

A sensitive, nuanced, and ultimately hopeful exploration of grief.

Insightful and deeply moving... I loved this book.

What a beautiful novel... Elegant, understated, subtly powerful and rings so perfectly true. And what a transcendent ending.