by Jan Carson
First published 2016
In a tight-knit Belfast neighborhood, three generations of families unknowingly share a complex web of unspoken histories. Eileen McGuigan tracks her family's whispered stories through her grandchildren's unexpected connections, revealing how secrets percolate across generations. When young cousins from different branches of the family begin swapping fragments of half-remembered tales, they inadvertently expose generational fault lines that have long remained buried. Each revelation threatens to unsettle the delicate social fabric of their community, where silence has been a form of survival. As children become unexpected archaeologists of their own family histories, they must decide whether understanding the past is worth disrupting the fragile peace they've inherited.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Belfast
Period: 21st-century
224 pages · Paperback · Liberties Press