Belinda McKeon Libri

Catherine and James are as close as two friends could ever be. They meet in Dublin in the late 1990s, she a college student, he a fledgling artist - both recent arrivals from rural communities, coming of age in a city which is teeming - or so they are told - with new freedoms, new possibilities. Catherine has never met anyone quite like James. Talented, quick-witted, adventurous and charismatic, he helps Catherine to open her eyes, to take on life with more gusto than she has ever before known how to do; she begins to enjoy her new home, to find her voice as a writer and to meet with the people who will shape her new world. But while Catherine's horizons are expanding, James's own life is becoming a prison; as changed as the new Ireland may be, it is still not a place in which he feels able to truly be himself

Mark Casey has left home, the rural Irish community where his family has farmed the same land for generations, to study for a doctorate in Dublin, a vibrant, contemporary city full of possibility. To his father, Tom, who needs help baling the hay and ploughing the fields, Mark's pursuit isn't work at all, and indeed Mark finds himself whiling away his time with pubs and parties. His is a life without focus or responsibility, until he meets Joanne Lynch, a trainee solicitor whom he finds irresistible. Joanne too has a past to escape from and for a brief time she and Mark share the chaos and rapture of a new love affair, until the lightning strike of tragedy changes everything. Solace is a work to be admired for its spare, intense lyricism, its range, and its deeply compassionate portrayal of life as it is lived now. 'An elegant, consuming and richly inspired novel. A superb debut. This one will last' Colum McCann 'A novel of quiet power, filled with moments of carefully-told truth . . . this book will appeal to readers both young and old' Colm Tóibín 'A story of clear-eyed compassion and quiet intelligence' Anne Enright

Ein emotionaler Roman über die komplexe Beziehung zwischen Catherine und James, die sich in Dublin kennenlernen. Während Catherine aufblüht, kämpft James mit seiner Homosexualität. Ihre Liebe ist von Besessenheit geprägt und führt sie in eine emotionale Katastrophe. Ein kluger, herzzerreißender Blick auf Freundschaft und Liebe.