RAINSONGS

Award-winning writer Sue Hubbard delivers a poignant story of transformation, conjuring the rugged beauty of County Kerry's coastline.

Newly widowed, Martha Cassidy has returned to a remote cottage in a virtually abandoned village on the west coast of Ireland for reasons even she is uncertain of. Looking out from her window towards the dramatic rise of the Skelligs across the water, she reflects on the loss of Brendan, her husband and charming curator, his death stirring unresolved heartache from years gone by. Alone on the windswept headland, surrounded by miles of cold sea, the past closes in.

As the days unfold, Martha searches for a way forward beyond grief, but finds herself drawn into a standoff between the entrepreneur Eugene Riordan and local hill farmer Paddy O'Connell. While the tension between them builds to a crisis that leaves Paddy in hospital, Martha encounters Colm, a talented but much younger musician and poet. Caught between its history and its future, the Celtic Tiger reels with change, and Martha faces redemptive choices that will change her life forever.

Sue Hubbard is an art critic, novelist and poet who has contributed regularly to a wide range of publications including the New Statesman and The Independent, and has also written for The Sunday Times and Observer. She has contributed to many arts programmes, including Kaleidoscope and Night Waves.

Twice winner of the London Writers' Award, her poems have been read on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 and she is well known for her poem Eurydice – London's largest public art poem – which stretches across Waterloo station, made possible by a grant from BFI and The Art's Council. Rainsongs is her third novel.