LONGLISTED FOR THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD

‘A long gorgeous epic, full of love and life and caring … one of the best novels you’ll read this year’ New York Times

‘It’s all here: how we live, how we love, how we die, how we carry on … It’s humbling and heartening to read a book this good’ Joshua Ferris

Eileen Leary wants more. Raised in a downtrodden area of new York by hard-drinking, Irish immigrant parents, she dreams of another life: a better job, a bigger house, more respectable friends, a happy family. When she meets Ed Leary, a brilliant young scientist, she thinks she’s found the perfect partner to pursue and share her American Dream with. An indefatigable love enters Eileen’s life – but so too does a pervasive darkness and a loss that will last a lifetime.