Before My Actual Heart Breaks

(Paperback)

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Description

An incredible debut exploring loneliness, grief and the long-lasting repercussions of trauma set against the backdrop of the Northern Irish Troubles. __________________________________________________ 'Fresh, entertaining, funny and moving' RODDY DOYLE 'A touching tale of how one woman survives a tough beginning to eventually end up exactly where her heart belongs' ANNE GRIFFIN, author of When All is Said __________________________________________________ 'If I could go back to being sixteen again, I'd do things differently.' 'Everyone over the age of forty feels like that, you total gom,' says my best friend Lizzie Magee. When she was young Mary Rattigan wanted to fly. She was going to take off like an angel from heaven and leave the muck and madness of troubled Northern Ireland behind. Nothing but the Land of Happy Ever After would do for her. But as a Catholic girl with a B.I.T.C.H. for a Mammy and a silent Daddy, things did not go as she and Lizzie Magee had planned. Now, five children, twenty-five years, an end to the bombs and bullets, enough whiskey to sink a ship and endless wakes and sandwich teas later, Mary's alone. She's learned plenty of hard lessons and missed a hundred steps towards the life she'd always hoped for. Will she finally find the courage to ask for the love she deserves Or is it too late

Reviews

This is in many ways a familiar story but it is told in such a fresh, entertaining, funny and moving way, it felt like I was reading something brand new. * Roddy Doyle *
Two pages into this book you know you've unlocked something special . . . the book is brightened up plenty by sunshine characters and the magnificence of Tyrone nature . . . Tish knows what she's talking about. * Irish Examiner *

A really lovely book. I loved reading it.

-- Mariella Frostrup
Delaney's writing is a beautiful wave flowing lyrically through the life of Mary Rattigan. A touching tale of how one woman survives a tough beginning to eventually end up exactly where her heart belongs. -- Anne Griffin author of WHEN ALL IS SAID
I did not expect this debut to turn into the most exquisite love story, but it did, and I was besotted. * Red *

Author Bio

Tish Delaney was born and brought up in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles. Like a lot of people of her generation, she left the sectarian violence behind by moving to England. After graduating from Manchester University, she moved to London and worked on various magazines and broadsheets as a reporter, reviewer and sub-editor. She left the Financial Times in 2014 to live in the Channel Islands to pursue her career as a writer. Before My Actual Heart Breaks, her debut novel, will be published by Hutchinson in 2021.