The Disenchanted Widow
The Disenchanted Widow by Christina McKenna, published by Amazon Publishing in 2013, is a literary fiction novel that explores themes of romance and personal reinvention. Set in the summer of 1981, the story follows newly widowed Bessie Halstone as she attempts to escape Belfast with her young son, Herkie. Wrongly suspected of theft linked to her late husband’s criminal activities, Bessie seeks refuge at her sister’s home in County Sligo but finds herself stranded in the rural community of Tailorstown due to car trouble.
As Bessie lays low, she takes a job as a housekeeper for a mysterious parish priest, while Lorcan Strong, an artist returning to his hometown, becomes entwined in her life. Their chance meeting leads them into a world filled with both personal challenges and external dangers stemming from their pasts. This edition, comprising 385 pages, offers readers an insightful glimpse into small-town life in Ireland, continuing the narrative established in McKenna’s earlier work, The Misremembered Man.
Official synopsis Publisher
It’s the summer of 1981. Newly widowed Bessie Halstone is fleeing Belfast with her young son, Herkie. She’s wrongly suspected of pocketing £10,000, the loot from a heist carried out by Packie, her late (and unmourned) husband.
Bessie has plans. She longs to make a fresh start. But first she must reach the safety of her sister’s home, in County Sligo, to borrow money for the trip.
She doesn’t make it. Car trouble forces her to sojourn in Tailorstown, a sleepy rural community. Her plans are put on hold as she decides to lay low for a while.
She’ll need cash. She finds work as a housekeeper for the handsome but mysterious parish priest.
In the meantime, Lorcan Strong, an artist and a native of Tailorstown, is summoned home. With reluctance, he returns to the place where he feels almost a stranger, a town he has long outgrown.
A chance meeting with young Herkie Halstone leads Lorcan into the world of the disenchanted Bessie — and into a grave danger that has pursued them both from Belfast.
The Disenchanted Widow is an unforgettable peek into small-town life in Ireland’s recent past. It’s a glorious successor to McKenna’s first Tailorstown novel, The Misremembered Man.
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