This was a magnificent book written in a simple, yet evocative language. The way everyone's lives are interconnected is demonstrated in this serious of touching stories about life in a small Irish town. The thread that knits the sttories together is the old Copper Beech tree at Shancarrig school where students carve their names.

As we read each character's story, the life of the town emerges into our conciousness. This book shows that every place, no matter how drab, has a story and that we can never know what is happening in the life of another.

I was touched to the quick by this story and had trouble putting it down. A tale that will remain in my memory forever.

I would recommend this book to anyone.... ( )

The Copper Beech, by Maeve Binchy, is a loving portrait of a rural Irish village told through the lives of its ordinary town folk over a twenty-five year period from the mid-1940s to 1970. There are eight main characters and almost a whole village worth of other secondary characters. If there is one minor fault with this book, it is that readers may find it difficult to keep track of all the names and relationships. At the novel’s core is a huge copper beech tree that stands in front of the old schoolhouse. At some moment in each character’s story, this beech tree takes on an important role.

Each chapter is told from a different character’s point of view, and each forms a delightful and complete story in itself. Subsequent chapters dealing with other characters’ lives, manage artfully and subtly—often by mere happenstance—to reveal relevant information about previous characters and events. This new information makes the reader reevaluate and reassess what actually may have occurred in previous chapters. Thus the chapters intertwine artfully to create a unified whole. In addition, we manage to see many of the same events from entirely different perspectives.

Overall, this book was a very satisfying reading experience—a slow novel, with considerable emphasis on realistic character development. Binchy is a master storyteller. In this work, her prose is unpretentious and easy-going, giving the reader the experience of being there, in the village, hearing a series of stories told by a sage old timer. The author is at her best when she delves into the interior emotions of her characters—their hopes, dreams, insecurities, sorrows, fears, and disillusionments. But overall with this book, it is not the characters one falls in love with, but the town. In many ways this novel is a loving lament for a place and time that is vanishing all too quickly in this pace-paced modern world.

This is one of those rare novels that I did not want to end—I wanted the author to continue telling us about the lives of each and every person is Shancarrig and carrying their stories right up to the present day—obviously an impossible task. But the author did manage to put a satisfactory ending on this heart-warming tale, and I closed the last page with a profound feeling of peace, love for humanity, and a twinge of grief for the imaginary people of Shancarrig that I would visit no more. ( )

Yet another masterpiece by my favorite Irish author. Heartwarming story of Shancarrig, a place where lives and loves intertwine under the shade of the magnificent copper beech. It was especially touching for me, because my three-month-old son has Down Syndrome, and so throughout the book my heart went out to Maura and Michael. I think that Binchy portrayed Michael exceptionally well - she didn't make him seem less or more than what he was, which is how I want people to see my son, as just another little boy, special in his own way.

She presents each chapter from a different character's viewpoint. Amazingly, the reader falls in and out of love with characters, depending upon what other characters say about them. I was surprised to discover that I liked some of the characters who seemed so unlovable! But, like Atticus Finch says in To Kill a Mockingbird, (paraphrased) "you can't really understand someone else unless you've stood in their shoes." What a truism, and really, something that Binchy reminds us of in this beautifully written book. ( )

A small town in Ireland whose thriving center in the old school house is put up for sale. Memories flood back to all of those who went there and life in the town. ( )

Another beautiful tale of small town Irish life from the queen of Irish fiction. Titled after the copper beach that stands in front of the Shancarrig schoolhouse, and which is some way intersects with the lives of all of the characters. ( )