Patrick Doherty

A moving and compassionate debut novel about a young man struggling with mental illness and a family trying to understand one another in the aftermath of grief and loss.

Tadhg Kelly suffers a mental breakdown after the death of his mother, when he returns home after a stay in hospital, he tries to fit into a family and a world that doesn’t understand him. A world where the one person that that could reach him is no longer there. We find a family trying to understand one another from the show more edges of their own private battles.

The mix of diary entries and family perspectives worked surprisingly well and made the story feel very real and intimate. The author handles grief and mental health with a lot of care and compassion and I appreciated how honest the read felt.
Not a light read by any means but certainly a very meaningful one.

I think this would make a very good bookclub choice as there is lots to discuss in this one. show less