Home Stretch
Ratings15
Average rating3.8
In this "compelling, bighearted, emotionally precise page-turner" (Sunday Times), the New York Times bestselling writer and acclaimed television host explores the aftermath of a tragedy on a small-town to illuminate the shame and longing that can flow through generations--and how the secrets of the heart cannot stay be buried forever. 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. A powerful and timely novel of emigration and return, Home Stretch demonstrates Norton's keen understanding of the power of stigma and secrecy--and their devastating effect on ordinary lives.
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This was absolutely fantastic! Graham Norton's books just keep getting stronger. After reading A Keeper by this author a few years back, I highly anticipated this new release. He did not disappoint!
Set in a small Irish town just outside of Cork, this story follows the aftermath of a tragic car accident in the town in the 1980s . This results in the death of three of the local teenagers and leaves one completely paralysed and wheelchair bound for the rest of her life. When Connor takes the blame for the car accident, he is outcast from his community and runs away. The rest of the novel follows the fall out of Connor's exile on the community in Ireland, the relatives he leaves behind, Connor himself and the next generation to follow.
Norton has perfected beautifully his stitching together of remote Irish sub culture with its emphasis on community ties and the importance of social status. He also wonderfully illustrates in this novel through Connor and his nephew Finbarr's experiences, the fraught history of homosexuality in Ireland. Norton as a proud gay Irish man, welcomes us warmly as the reader into the struggles of his own adolescent sexual identity in Ireland through the character of Connor and his confusion and fear of rejection from his family.
The characters in this novel were wonderfully nuanced and vivid, seeming to walk right off the page. I have also come to admire deeply Norton's unique composition of his plots. He effortlessly weaves together family saga, historical drama and contemporary romance all into one compulsive and propelling read. Bravo Norton. I can say with pleasure, I am a firm fan. I cannot wait to read more from this author.
Thanks to the author, Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.
