The Irish Goodbye by Heather Aimee O'Neill ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

 

Three adult sisters grapple with a shared tragedy over a Thanksgiving weekend as they try to heal strained family bonds through the passage of time.

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site.  A free book was provided for an honest review.

September 2025; Henry Holt; 978-1250408150
audio, ebook, print (288 pages); women's fiction

I really enjoy books about sisters, so I knew that I'd like this book as soon as I read the description.  It was even better than I hoped it would be.  The three sisters had a lot of distrust of each other, and they were going to spend Thanksgiving weekend with their parents at their family’s beloved house on the eastern shore of Long Island.  The estate had a lot of memories for all three of them because 20 years earlier, their beloved brother Topher had killed himself at the house. The sisters and their parents continued to feel grief, and it affected each of them differently.

Cait is the oldest sister and lives in England with her two children.  She is divorced and begins to feel unhappy with her job as a lawyer.  She is holding on to a secret from the day her brother killed himself and feels guilty about it.  Part of the reason she decided to come home for the holiday was to spend time with her high school boyfriend,  who was also Topher's best friend.

Alice is the middle sister and lives near her parents with her husband and two children.  She was a stay-at-home mom, and now that her children have gotten older, she is beginning a career and doing things that she had not been able to do when the kids were young.  She is a decorator who wants to go back to school to learn more about her profession.  She is the 'good sister' who takes care of her parents and makes sure that they are safe and healthy.  When she receives some life-changing news, she is forced to make a decision that may end her marriage.  She also holds some resentment for her sisters, who don't share in the care of their parents.

Maggie is the youngest daughter.  She has decided to bring her new girlfriend home to her strict Catholic family celebration for the holiday. Her mother has never accepted that her daughter is gay, and Maggie has no idea how they'll treat the love of her life.

Will this Thanksgiving weekend cause the sisters and their parents to become further estranged, or will they learn to be able to forgive each other and, more importantly, forgive themselves?  All three sisters were very well written.  They had all taken different paths in their lives, but they all felt deep guilt and sorrow over the loss of their brother.  This book was very emotional as the sisters started to tear down the walls that separated them.

This is a debut novel for this author, and based on my enjoyment of this book, I am really looking forward to whatever she writes next.

"Finn said an Irish goodbye is when you leave without saying goodbye." (p 214)

Buy The Irish Goodbye at Amazon

Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is three hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.   

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