Unravelling by Elske Rahill

180 in stock

228mm x 145mm x 43mm

Pages: 496

Rahill is a stylist of the highest calibre...
Mollys voice has a lilting brogue that sings from the page. Rahills prose is alive with inventive phrasings and imagistic virtuosity, especially in its presentation of the intimate experience of the fleshly body GÇô the maternal body, the cruelly waning body, the body tormented by a conflicted and unravelling mind. Ive seldom read a novel so rich in poetry GUARDIAN. Molly is now in her eighties and she helps her grand-daughters Cara and Freya bring up their young children with unstinting care. Hers has been a life of unselfpitying service, from her working-class Dublin girlhood to her current status as the wealthy widow of a famous artist.

But her own children, particularly her daughter Eileen, are her lifes great failure: unhappy, self-indulgent women who resent the younger generations apparent freedom from guilt and their unconventional family arrangements. This intricate web of female relationships comes under terrible strain when Molly, her health sapped by her constant efforts on behalf of others, decides to consult the family solicitor about changing her will.

This is a novel of great tenderness in its depiction of the small pleasures of family life and ruthless in its portrayal of the dangerous power of money.

Powerful... Heartbreaking and beautifully observed Irish Times.