Casey Freeman, a Manhattan lawyer, attends the reading of a letter from a late friend. In her will, she has asked that her three closest female friends spend time on an island off the west coast of Ireland in her memory. A LETTER FROM IRELAND is about to upend their lives.
With Georgie Hunt, an artist of impecunious means, and their reluctant friend Debbie, the surprised Casey makes time in her schedule. Nobody knew Rosie Brentwood was so ill and she didn’t leave any family bar an aunt, so it’s come out of the blue. Shay, May and Dan Kennedy, the nearest shopkeepers to Scarty Island, also provide a boat service and in summer, a café, inn and tour service. Debbie, who shows up after the others arrive, grumbles about someone controlling them from beyond the grave. Rosie seems to have had quite another side to her, known to those in Ireland where she spent her summers.
We learn about the friendships, fallings out and marriages. I think it’s unrealistic that three modern working women should be asked to spend two months on an island in a cottage without even electricity. Even stranger that they would agree instead of jetting in, staying for a week and scattering Rosie’s ashes. They get food deliveries and spend a lot of days on the mainland, where Casey in particular makes herself useful by serving in the café for something to do. Shay, a widower, lives with his parents and is easy on the eyes, but moody. Gradually they start to talk.
Author Ann O'Loughlin has provided a gorgeous flavour of the western seaboard, with freshly caught lobster, baked scones and golden butter among the treats. While she shows Casey as being helpful and not working for pay, I wonder if she realises that Casey is probably taking the place of a student who needed a wage, experience, and work on their CV.
I am intrigued by Casey’s occasional Zoom calls to Manhattan, patching into the desk job from the village. If someone isn’t missed in two months, would the office still need her? The world has shrunk with video calling and email, so the world of work has adapted.
A LETTER FROM IRELAND is quite a slow account of personal dramas and changes of scenery, to be enjoyed when the reader has time to relax and take in the sound of the surf. Ann O’Loughlin has written several other women’s fiction novels, some featuring Ireland. Friendship and romance go hand in hand with the countryside.
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