This is a most impressive debut novel. It tells the story of three generations of women: Róisín and Máire Dooley, two sisters from Burtonport in County Donegal, and Máire’s daughter, Cora, and her child, Lyca, who are based in New York. Máire followed her dream to study art in New York while Róisín developed her considerable skills as a video game creator. The book is structured as if it were one of Róisín’s games – Scream School.
The book opens in 2001 in Manhattan when Cora sees the famous 9/11 photo of The Falling Man, who allegedly jumped from the 104th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. He was her father. His death leaves her an orphan as, seven years earlier, Máire’s body was found washed up in Flushing Creek in Queens.
Soon after 9/11 Cora receives a mysterious letter from an Aunt Róisín in Burtonport, whose existence she knew nothing about, informing her that her father had appointed Róisín as her guardian. This, on top of her father’s death, comes as a shock to Cora.
What follows is an intriguing tale that takes us from 1970s Ireland to New York in 2023. In the early days in Burtonport, Máire and Róisín had fallen under the spell of one of the book’s most interesting creations, the Screamers’ house.
The complex structure demands concentration from the reader – but like all good games, it certainly rewards the effort. Catherine Airey is an intriguing and exciting new voice in fiction and I eagerly look forward to her next book.
Reviewed by Russell Thomson
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Catherine Airey grew up in England in a family of mixed Irish and English descent, and now lives in County Cork.
Confessions is her first novel.
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