A Keeper: The Sunday Times Bestseller

Product Information

Living in America has left a void in Elizabeth as she tries to interact with her extended Irish family. She comes across some handwritten letters to her mother from a man by the name of Edward Foley in Cork. Elizabeth is perplexed as to the nature of these letters.

From the bestselling author of Holding comes a masterly tale of secrets and ill-fated loves set on the coast of Ireland. From the bestselling author of HOLDING comes a masterly tale of secrets and ill-fated loves set on the coast of Ireland. An intelligent, well paced mystery that I gulped down in three rainy days. Alternating masterfully between “Now” and “Then,” from Convent Hill in the town of Buncarragh just outside Kilkenny, Ireland to the remote Castle House by the sea near West Cork, Graham Norton spins the tale of Patricia Keane and her daughter Elizabeth.Graham Norton has won 9 BAFTAs for Best Entertainment Performance, and Best Entertainment Programme. He presents The Graham Norton Show on BBC1, a show on BBC Radio 2 every Saturday, and is a judge on RuPaul's Drag Race UK. Norton won the Special Recognition Award at the National Television Awards in 2017.

I didn't listen to the audio version much, but what I did hear, I enjoyed. Five stars to the audio performance.Perfectly crafted, a beautiful, gripping account of Irish memory and deceit. A terrific achievement .' ANDREW O'HAGAN

The story of a daughter returning to Ireland and discovering her identity is moving, but even more so is the story of her mother, who, now dead, brought up Elizabeth on her own in the society where single mothers were not accepted with open hands. Patricia defied the conventions and devoted her life to her daughter. No spoilers here, but the plot is intriguing, and the truth revealed proves that life sometimes prepares for us most extraordinary surprises, just like for Elizabeth. Well this book was a surprise read. Recommended to me by my son. I had seen a few of his shows - but not to my taste.

Norton is so skilful in his portrayal of Irish life in its best and worst. He recreates the atmosphere, the characters, the moods of times so well! It's terribly unfair. While it took Margaret Mitchell 10 years to compose 'Gone With the Wind', and 12 years for Victor Hugo to finish 'Les Miserables', Graham Norton appears to have thrown this together over the course of a rainy Saturday afternoon and published it the following Monday without any further thought or attention. Perfectly crafted, a beautiful, gripping account of Irish memory and deceit. A terrific achievement.' ANDREW O'HAGAN

This compelling new novel confirms Graham Norton's status as a fresh, literary voice, bringing his clear-eyed understanding of human nature and its darkest flaws. It's kind of cosy but also sad and very moving(I did cry a bit) ...it's just a fab read and one of my favourites this year. The next chapter is the "Now" and we meet a young single mom who has just learned her mom has passed. She needs to go to Ireland and clear out her house and wind up her affairs. She is dealing w/the loss of her mom and also with her teen son, whose situation is complicated because she is raising him alone. Absolutely delightful - the kind of book you should always reach for if you're in a slump. Well-written, a good, just right amount of bewildering storyline and good characters. I can't say much about anyone else in this book because they are not developed well at all. We have Elizabeth's son Zach, her ex-husband, Patricia's ex friend Rosemary and Edward Foley. Don't even get me started on why we get a separate POV for Rosemary, it wasn't necessary and added nothing to the story.years earlier, a young woman stumbles from a remote stone house, the night quiet but for the tireless wind that circles her as she hurries further into the darkness away from the cliffs and the sea. She has no sense of where she is going, only that she must keep on. The book's setting is Ireland in the present and the 1970s. Maybe I have been reading too much Tana French and Maeve Binchy, but the book didn't feel "Irish" to me. Even Elizabeth didn't. Maybe because she had been away for so long, but there's no mention of her having an accent or how her relatives sound, etc. We get descriptions of the house and farm and that's it.