The Coast Road

(Hardback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Alan Murrin writes with the calm, poetic fluency of the best of Irish writers ... A stonkingly good novel. Just read it SARAH WINMAN, bestselling author of Still Life Its 1994 in County Donegal, Ireland, and everyone is talking about Colette Crowley the writer, the bohemian, the woman who left her husband and sons to pursue a relationship with a married man in Dublin. But now Colette is back, and nobody knows why. Returning to the community to try and reclaim her old life, Colette quickly learns that they are unwilling to give it back to her. The man to whom she is still married is denying her access to her children, and while the legalisation of divorce might be just around the corner, Colette finds herself caught between her old life and the freedom for which she risked everything. Desperate to see her children, she enlists the help of Izzy, a housewife and mother of two, and the two women forge a friendship that will send them on a spiralling journey one toward a path of self-discovery, and the other toward tragedy. Brilliantly observed from a sharp new literary talent, The Coast Road is a novel about a closed community and the consequences of daring to move against the tide.

Reviews

Alan Murrin writes with the calm, poetic fluency of the best of Irish writers. The Coast Road is set in Donegal the year before divorce became legal in Ireland, and the many themes are equally sadly as relevant now. Womens autonomy is beautifully scrutinised in a shifting tempo that moves between rage, forgiveness and hope. Its a stonkingly good novel. Just read it -- Sarah Winman, bestselling author of STILL LIFE

Author Bio

Alan Murrin is an Irish fiction writer based in Berlin. In 2021 he was the winner of the Bournemouth Writing Prize for his short story The Wake, which went on to be shortlisted for short story of the year at the Irish Book Awards. He is the recipient of an Irish Arts Council Agility Award and an Arts Council Literature Bursary. He is a graduate of the prose fiction masters at the University of East Anglia. His work was featured as part of the New Irish Writing series in the Irish Independent. His work has been short-listed for the Irish Arts and Writers Festival short story prize, the New Irish Writing in Germany Prize, and he was long-listed for the 2021 University of Essex International short story prize. He writes for the Irish Times, Times Literary Supplement and Spectator. His writing on art and photography has appeared in Art Review and The White Review.