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From the award-winning author of Love and Summer: A short novel about coming of age in WWII-era provincial Ireland that “certainly lingers in the mind” (Harriet Waugh, Spectator). At fifty-eight, Harry is a lifelong bachelor who never left the Irish village where he was born. But he will never forget the beautiful Englishwoman, and her much older German husband, who brought a new world into view when they escaped Hitler's Germany to come and live at Cloverhill. To fifteen-year-old Harry, Frau Messinger was a vision of elegance and culture unlike any he'd ever known. Ignoring his family's suspicions, he was happy to fetch her packages in exchange for time spent in her company. But it wasn't only the horrors of history that drove Herr and Frau Messinger to Harry's village. And when Herr Messigner begins building a lavish art cinema, the Alexandra, as a gift to his dying wife, the project becomes Harry's lifelong obsession.

The Whitbread Award–winning author “demonstrates a master's touch” in this tale of an aristocratic Irish family's ruinous path toward modernity (The New York Times). An island estate off the coast of county Cork, Carriglas has been in the Rolleston family for centuries. Sarah Pollexfen, a distant relation of little means, remembers the magical summer she spent there as a child in 1904. But much has changed in Ireland since then. And when Sarah returns nearly thirty years later, she finds Carriglas much changed as well. World War I and the Irish Troubles have taken their toll on the Rollestons. Sarah's cousins, who once seemed to sparkle with beauty and wit, have grown dour and withdrawn. And as Sarah uncovers the tragedies they've endured, she'll also discover the terrible truth about that seemingly idyllic summer in 1904.

The denizens of a crumbling Dublin hotel are the subject of a meddling photographer in this Booker Prize–shortlisted “masterpiece” (Irish Times). Once a flourishing establishment, O'Neill's Hotel has fallen on hard times. The same could be said for the people who live there. Among them are Mrs. Sinnott, the elderly, deaf, and mute proprietor; her drunkard son, Eugene; Morrissey, a small-time pimp; and the grim, lone porter O'Shea. But what might sound bleak to some holds irresistible allure for globetrotting photographer Ivy Eckdorf. Hearing stories of O'Neill's Hotel from an ocean liner barman, Eckdorf catches the unmistakable whiff of human interest. Surely some tragic story hides within this crumbling corner of Ireland. Now she intends to uncover that story, frame it just so, and turn it into her next coffee table book. Though she has no connection to these hard-luck souls, she has arrived. And no one's life will be the same—not even hers. “An astounding richness of pathos, humour and tragedy.” —Francis King “A small work of art [that] reaches antic heights.” —The New York Times