- Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Pocket Books (3 Mar 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0743450175
- ISBN-13: 978-0743450171
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.9 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 225,966 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Nell, a rare female Master of Wine, enjoys an uncluttered and elegant life in Paris, sharing her days with Lulu - the cantankerous poodle her best friend bequeathed to her as a joke on her deathbed - and sharing her passion for wine with Henri, her lover and married vineyard owner. Until a phone call shatters the peace of her carefully constructed world...It is her daughter's neighbour in Ireland, with news so worrying that Nell can no longer avoid the inevitable. She must return home for the first time in over thirty years. But why has it taken Nell so long to swap the boulevards of Paris for the green fields of Western Ireland? And why didn't she even go back for her own mother's funeral? A poignant and gripping exploration of love, loss and the nature of memory itself, THE MEMORY STONES is a moving study of the intricacies of mother/daughter relationships, observed with razor-sharp precision and great tenderness.
About the Author
Kate is an award-winning novelist, playwright and television screen writer and has been a recipient of the SUNDAY TRIBUNE/HENNESSY PRIZE for 'Best Emerging Writer'. THE MEMORY STONES is her fourth novel after INVOLVED (shortlisted for Dillons First Fiction Prize), THE BOY IN THE MOON (Arts Council Award) and THE ANGEL IN THE HOUSE, which is being adapted for a feature film. Kate has also contributed to the hugely successful short story collection LADIES NIGHT AT FINBAR'S HOTEL. Kate was brought up in the West of Ireland, but now lives in London with her husband. She is currently working on her fifth novel, and a commissioned screenplay.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Memory of Stones,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Memory Stones (Paperback)
Kate O'Riordan gets better and better! If you enjoyed reading The Boy in the Moon you will love The Memory of Stones.The story begins in Paris with a gentle love story between two attractive people in their prime. However, it soon changes, moving to Ireland and building up to a crescendo of foreboding and danger. Yet at every stage of the novel the humanity of the characters shines through. There is no black and white in this author's writing, but a deep understanding of human nature and the dilemmas we all face, and then some. She understands the situations in which her characters find themselves and deals with them with a truth reflected in the honesty of her writing.Her characters reveal themselves to the reader as fully formed, warts and all, but with big hearts. Although Kate O'Riordan shows the darker side of human nature, she is also willing to concede that even her most evil characters will often have another side to them and should not be dismissed so easily. There could always be a twist. Indeed this plot twists and turns and the reader experiences one surprise after another. Essentially this book is about the past and the present. The past encroaches on the present in a remarkable heartrending way. It shows that we are all influenced by our past whether or not we attempt to escape it and that we must all seek redress in the end. In her writing Kate O'Riordan demonstrates a great love for the English language. At times it is poetic, an unusual trait in this age. Her love of Ireland and particulary of the landscapes of Kerry are obvious. This is a novel that should be read in one session.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A bit frustrating,
By
This review is from: The Memory Stones (Paperback)
In a book which explores the mother/daughter relationships of four generations (um, let's see, that's three sets of mothers and daughters), it is perhaps inevitable that this book can become tiring when read from a man's perspective. Without some form of natural feminine empathy, I found myself just wanting to pick up the characters, pinning their arms by their sides, and shaking them, firmly telling them to just stop tippy-toeing around and GET ON WITH IT! Huge amounts of angst. Still, it is well written, with the jumps in timeline from past to present handled skillfully and interestingly. Nell, the main character, is likeable - most of the others are not. Enjoable and evocative descriptions of west coast rural Ireland. Frustrating because I'm not sure I have any better understanding of the mother/daughter psyche.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mothers, daughters and memory,
By Bibliophan (Scotland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Memory Stones (Paperback)
A beautiful book, with enough twists, turns to keep you guessing all the way through, capably and clearly covering the lives of four generations of women, and moving at just the right pace through heartache and suspense towards resolution and redemption. Wonderfully descriptive writing, a meditation on memory and motherhood.
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