HOME STRETCH by Graham Norton

 This man just keeps getting better in his story telling. Not only a wonderful interviewer and TV entertainer, but a terrific story teller. His careful drawing of his characters, his sympathy and love for their complexities and weaknesses set against the small town Irishness of it all. Such a wonderful treat to read and enjoy. Like his two previous novels, the plot moves between the past and present as the tragedies of life unfold, the mistakes and secrets of the past continuing to impact the lives of the present. 

This story begins in 1987 on the eve of the wedding of a young local couple. The whole town is excited about the wedding, new clothes bought, nails done, everything in readiness. Until a terrible car accident takes the lives of three young people, leaves a fourth in a wheelchair for life, and the lives of two others, Martin and Connor,  changed forever. The grief is palpable, the author having such a delicate touch as the tragedy of the accident flows through the community. 

As the driver of the car, Connor cannot live with the guilt and the finger pointing, so one day he simply disappears, putting his pub owning parents and sister Ellen through a different type of grief. Martin, the doctor's son, marries Ellen, sweeping her off her feet, and then it is as if his guilt becomes too much for him to deal with as the years of their marriage unfold. 

Meantime Connor makes his own life, but always carrying the burden of that terrible day. Until one day, some twenty years later, the past jumps out in front of him, forcing him to face up to what really went on that summer's day in 1987. 

Many cans of worms are opened, family secrets spilt out, people having to build some bridges and burn a few so as to rearrange the universe and allow forgiveness of the self and of each other. You can tell the author loves people, loves their differences, their faults, their quirks - the whole human being-ness of who we are. Placing his stories in small, almost insular communities allows all those human failings and foibles  to show, be magnified. But it is not too much that we can't see ourselves in these small town prejudices, ways of doing things, controls and unspoken rules. We have all been subject to these at some stage in our lives, and the freedom that comes from letting those rules be softened, bent or broken makes for a much better community and world for us to be in.