Divorce is such a commonplace in today’s society it’s hard to believe it only became legal in Ireland in 1996. In 1994 in County Donegal, where The Coast Road is set, rocky marriages must be either endured or broken without the benefit of legal sanction.
After leaving her husband and three sons to pursue an affair with a married man in Dublin, Colette Crowley has returned to her small home town hoping to start over and most importantly restore her relationship with her sons. However, her husband, determined to punish her, cuts her off financially and denies her any access to the boys. In desperation she enlists the help of Izzy Keaveney, a wife and mother whose own marriage is crumbling under the strain of constant arguments with her workaholic husband. Izzy tries to help Colette by arranging clandestine meetings between her and her youngest son,
but this backfires dramatically.
As Colette runs out of money and despairs of ever regaining the love of her children, she begins drinking heavily. Murrin’s depiction of a woman succumbing to pressures way beyond her control is bleak, but resonant with honesty and compassion.
This compelling story is a powerful, authentic picture of small-town life, where anonymity is not an option. Living under the scrutiny of the self-righteous, judgmental and interfering can push those who are troubled and vulnerable to the limits of their endurance. It’s easy to see why he’s being acclaimed as one of Ireland’s most promising young writers, set to rival other greats such as John Banville, John Boyne and Colm Tóibín.
Reviewed by Anne Green
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alan Murrin is an Irish fiction writer. His debut novel is The Coast Road which was shortlisted for the Peters Fraser Dunlop Queer Fiction Prize and was long-listed for the Caledonia New Novel Award 2022.
In 2021 he was the winner of the Bournemouth Writing Prize for his short story “The Wake”, which went on to be shortlisted for short story of the year at the Irish Book Awards and was published in the collection Waves of Change. In 2023 he was awarded an Irish Arts Council Next Generation Award.
He is a graduate of the prose fiction masters at the University of East Anglia. His work was featured as part of the New Irish Writing series in the Irish Independent. His fiction has appeared in The Cardiff Review, and has been anthologised in Literally Speaking Berlin (2019), The Sacred Exists to be Found and the UEA Prose Fiction Anthology. His work has been short-listed for the Irish Arts and Writers Festival short story prize, the New Irish Writing in Germany Prize, and he was long-listed for the 2021 University of Essex International short story prize. He writes for The Irish Times, The Times Literary Supplement and The Spectator.
His writing on art and photography has appeared in Art Review and The White Review.
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