A house swap leads to an unlikely and touching friendship, as secrets are unveiled and lives changed.

Ria and Marilyn have never met – they live thousands of miles apart, separated by the Atlantic Ocean: one in a big, warm, Victorian house in Tara Road, Dublin, the other in a modern, open-plan house in New England.

Two more unlikely friends would be hard to find: Ria’s life revolves around her family and friends, while Marilyn’s reserve is born of grief. But when each needs a place to escape to, a house exchange seems the ideal solution.

Along with the borrowed houses come neighbours and friends, gossip and speculation as Ria and Marilyn swap lives for the summer…

Bursting with Warmth & Humour!

I have read this book many times before, but it’s such a long time since I opened it last it was almost like reading it for the first time.

Ria and Marilyn have never met, but circumstances lead them both to needing to be on the opposite sides of the Atlantic at the same time. Luckily the connection is made between them and Ria flies off to a modern open-plan apartment in New England while Marilyn heads to a beautiful old home in Tara Road, Dublin. These women are very different creatures – will this be a summer which brings them what they seek?

There is no one else who writes like Maeve Binchy and I had forgotten that! She understands and writes about human nature better than anyone else I’ve ever come across and I wallowed in Tara Road. This isn’t so much a novel about two women but more a story about people in two very different neighbourhoods and it is bursting with warmth and humour. I can’t begin to explain why I loved this so much, but I did and it is, once again, easily worth ten stars, but I can only give it five – please know that they are all sparkling brighter than any others!

I own a hardback copy of this novel, however I purchased an ecopy this time around; this is – as always – my honest, original and unbiased review.

Tags: Irish saga

• Format: ebook, paperback, hardcover, audiobook, audio cd
• Size: 658 pages
• Publisher: Orion
• Publication Date: re-issue edition, 23 December 2009
• Book Links:
• https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8134199
• https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Maeve_Binchy_Tara_Road?id=gD1WXiSrdSMC
• https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tara-road-maeve-binchy/1100297564
• https://uk.bookshop.org/books/tara-road-an-oprah-book-club-pick/9780752876863
• https://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/fiction-poetry/tara-road-an-oprah-book-club-pick,maeve-binchy-9780752876863
• https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/tara-road
• https://www.whsmith.co.uk/products/tara-road/maeve-binchy/paperback/9780752876863.html
• https://www.waterstones.com/book/tara-road/maeve-binchy/9780752876863
• https://wordery.com/tara-road-maeve-binchy-9780752876863
• https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tara-Road-Maeve-Binchy-ebook/dp/B0037471VW

Author Details

Maeve Binchy was born in County Dublin and educated at the Holy Child convent in Killiney and at University College, Dublin. After a spell as a teacher she joined the IRISH TIMES. Her first novel, LIGHT A PENNY CANDLE, was published in 1982 and she went on to write over twenty books, all of them bestsellers. Several have been adapted for cinema and television, including TARA ROAD. Maeve Binchy received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Book Awards in 1999 and the Irish PEN/A.T. Cross award in 2007. In 2010 she was presented with the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award at the Bord Gáis Irish Book Awards by the President of Ireland. She was married to the writer and broadcaster Gordon Snell for 35 years, and died in 2012.