All That I Leave Behind: A powerful, heart-breaking story of family secrets

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'A powerful story ... Walsh shows an innate understanding of people's lives, and the emotional truths that underpin them' Kathleen MacMahon It hadn't been Rosie's idea - a 'quaint' wedding at her childhood home in the Irish countryside. Nevertheless she finds herself back in Monasterard after a decade away, with her American fiance on her arm and a smile fixed to her face. As expected, the welcome from her siblings isn't exactly warm. Mary-Pat, the one who practically raised Rosie, is avoiding her. June is preoccupied with maintaining the illusion of her perfect family. And Pius, who still counts the years since their mother left, is hiding from the world. Each of them is struggling with the weight of things unsaid. In the end, it's their father who, on the day of Rosie's wedding, exposes what has remained hidden for so long. And as the O'Connor siblings piece together the secrets at the heart of their family, they begin to forgive the woman who abandoned them all those years ago.

Alison Walsh works in book publishing and literary journalism. She is the author of the bestselling memoir In My Mother's Shoes. All That I Leave Behind is her first novel. Follow her on Twitter at @authoralison or visit her website at www.alisonwalsh.net

A powerful story ... Walsh shows an innate understanding of people's lives, and the emotional truths that underpin them - Kathleen MacMahon, author of This is How it Ends Walsh deftly and sympathetically tackles that taboo subject of the mother who abandons her children ... Beautifully told - Sunday Independent