The light of evening
(Books)

The Light of Evening is a story of attachments, the attachment to land and especially the attachment between mother and daughter, who yearn for closeness but are also estranged. From her hospital bed in Dublin, the elderly Dilly awaits the visit of her daughter, Eleanora, from London. The epochs of her life pass before her: emigration to America in the 1920s, a romantic liaison, and the destiny that brought her back to Ireland and marriage into the formerly grand property called Rusheen. She also retraces Eleanora"s precipitate marriage to a foreigner, which alienated mother and daughter even more, and Dilly"s heart-rending letters sent over the years in a determination to reclaim her daughter. But Eleanora"s visit does not prove to be the glad reunion Dilly prayed for. And in her hasty departure, Eleanora leaves behind a secret journal of their stormy relationship—a revelation that brings the novel to a shocking close. The Light of Evening is a novel of dreams and betrayals, but at its core is the realization that the bond between mother and child is unbreakable, stronger even than death. With its loving evocation of the Irish landscape, its cinematic portrait of New York in the 1920s as seen through the eyes of an immigrant, and its central mother-daughter relationship, it is certain to bring this daring writer her widest audience yet.