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Author: MacMahon, Kathleen

Ireland

Published on 29 February 2024 by Penguin Books Ltd in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 336 pages
197 x 127 x 21 | 234g

‘MacMahon writes with such beautiful simplicity, conjuring real and complex people straight off the page … subtle and authentic’ – Claire Fuller On opposite sides of the world, half-siblings Cassie and Christo have built their lives around work, intent on ignoring their painful past.

When a dramatic storm in Galway hits the headlines, they’re drawn back there to revisit a glorious childhood summer, the last before their mother died. But their journey uncovers memories of a far less happy summer – one that had tragic consequences.

Confronted with the havoc their mother left in her wake, Cassie and Christo are forced to face their past and – ready or not – to deal with the messy tangle of parental love and neglect that shaped them.

The Home Scar is a luminous and precise story about the inheritance of loss and the possibility of finally making peace with it.

‘Her beautifully simple style belies psychological complexity … and her tone is wryly accepting’ – Big Issue ‘Quiet and bleakly beautiful … like the siblings and Ireland, it will leave a permanent mark on those who venture into its depths’ – Buzz ‘Picks at the wounds only a mother can inflict … ambitious … intricate’ – Sunday Independent ‘An exceptional novel about a brother and sister returning to the west of Ireland and to a summer of their past.’ – Anne Griffin, Sunday Independent ‘A powerful story about legacy and loss and the possibility of reconciliation’ – Irish Times