Two very different children are growing up, shouting their
hearts' desires into the echo cave, praying that their
destiny will lead them far away from the town in which
they live. Castlebay, in winter empty and grey with wind
and sea spray, becomes all bustle and colour in the gaudy
days of summer – and Tom O'Brien's shop on the edge of the
cliff besieged by holidaymakers.nnOne of those children
with ambitions to leave Castlebay is Clare, Tom O'Brien's
younger daughter. A favourite with the local
schoolteacher, she wins a scholarship to University
College, Dublin and seems all set for a path of academic
glory. The other child dreaming of escape is David Power,
the doctor's son, also bound for Dublin university, and
probably a dazzling future as a specialist.nnThe paths of
these two characters are destined to criss-cross in a
quite unforeseen way, and eventually both roads will lead
back to Castlebay. The end of this long drama of ambition,
betrayal and love is played out in the seaside town where
it began, against a backdrop of whispered family gossip
and the tangled skein of past friendships.nnMaeve Binchy
brings to this story of a marriage all her warmth and
power of insight, but as in Light a Penny Candle, the
magic of her writing is not just in the story. It lies
also in her creation of a supporting cast, from Angela
O'Hara the schoolmistress whose priestly brother is not
all he seems, to Gerry Doyle, Castlebay's photographer and
resident Romeo. And above all it resides in her uncanny
ability to recreate the echoes of childhood or the memory
of being a teenager in a very particular time and place.nn
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