'A bittersweet demonstration of the impossibility of love' Independent
In a house overlooking Dublin Bay, Mimi and her daughter Grace are disturbed by the unexpected arrival of Grace's daughter Polly, and her striking new boyfriend. The events of the next few days will lead both of them to reassess the shape of their lives. For while Grace's visitors focus her attention on an uncertain future, Mimi, who receives a messenger of a very different kind, must begin to set herself to rights with the betrayals and disappointments of the past.
Superbly executed... by turns funny, revealing and sad, the novel is both enchanted and enchanting' Daily Telegraph
Cool, crafted poise and sly wit' Penny Perrick, The Times
'Jennifer Johnston's latest novel is a modern fairy tale with a dark theme... she handles [her material] so delicately, so deftly and wittily that we willingly suspend disbelief' Margaret Walters, Sunday Times
'Jennifer Johnston spins her yarn into a shimmering confection whose surface limpidity conceals layer upon layer of narrative meaning, yet whose overall effect is of simplicity, lightness and ease... This is a novel of immense sophistication, familiar yet distant as the moon of the title' Irish Times
Jennifer Johnston is one of the foremost Irish writers of her, or any, generation. She has won the Whitbread Prize (THE OLD JEST), the Evening Standard Best First Novel Award (for THE CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS), the Yorkshire Post Award, Best Book of the Year (twice, for THE CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS and HOW MANY MILES TO BABYLON?). She was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize with SHADOWS ON OUR SKIN.