Book Review: Home Stretch by Graham Norton

 Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook free of charge, from Gallery Books via Edelweiss for review purposes on this blog. No compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it, all opinions are my own

And speaking of Ireland...

Synopsis:

It is 1987 and a small Irish community is preparing for a wedding. The day before the ceremony, a group of young friends, including the bride and groom, are involved in an accident. Three survive. Three are killed.

The lives of the families are shattered and the rifts between them ripple throughout the small town. Connor survived, but living among the angry and the mourning is almost as hard as carrying the shame of having been the driver. He leaves the only place he knows for another life, taking his secrets with him. Travelling first to Liverpool, then London, he eventually makes a home—of sorts—for himself in New York, where he finds shelter and the possibility of forging a new life.

But the secrets—the unspoken longings and regrets that have come to haunt those left behind—will not be silenced. Before long, Connor will have to confront his past.

Review:

As a long time viewer of BBC, I've watcher Graham's variety/interview show for years, and he always has been able to get unique answers from people, so that you get to see a different side of them. He brings that same curiosity to his book, and characters-who new he was SUCH a great novelist? His books have been compelling, and this one is also. I literally read it in one go- I just could NOT out it down!

Small towns always hoard secrets, and as this book evolves, so do the secrets and the lives they touched (and burned). As the survivors finally come to terms with the accident and the secrets it produced, they learn to also take charge of their own lives and let go of the past, and learn to see who they really are, not who their small town wanted them to be. It's a wonderful book, and one that will stay with you for a very long time!

About the Author:

Graham Norton is the author of the novels Holding, which was a New York Times bestseller and won the 2016 Irish Independent Popular Fiction Award, and A Keeper. One of the UK's best loved broadcasters, Graham has won eight BAFTAs and is the host of The Graham Norton Show on BBC1 and BBC America, has a weekly show on BBC Radio 2, and writes a column for the Telegraph. Born in Dublin and raised in West Cork, he now lives in London.