CONFESSIONS

Love, loss, and the search for fulfillment shape three generations of women in an Irish family.

Airey’s debut—a long, looping, switchback tale of secrets, shifting relationships, early pregnancies, and lost family regained—spans some 50 years, from the 1970s to 2023, many of them spent in Burtonport, County Donegal, and others in Manhattan. The story opens with 16-year-old Cora Brady in New York in 2001, seven years after her mother’s suicide. Her father, an employee at the World Trade Center, will be one of those lost on 9/11. Rebellious, sensitive, and now alone, Cora is surprised to learn she has a legal guardian, Roísín Dooley, her mother Máire’s sister, who lives in Ireland. Now, the narrative swings overseas and back in time, to the Irish farm where Máire and Roísín grew up. Máire has artistic gifts, and Roísín’s talent is writing. A Black boy, Michael Brady, becomes Máire’s lover, and he and Roísín arrange for Máire’s appointment as artist-in-residence at a big house occupied by the Atlantis Primal Therapy Commune, known locally as the Screamers. (Máire and Roísín will eventually be involved in a video game called Scream School, based on this location, scenes from which are spliced throughout the narrative.) When Máire moves to New York to study art, a checkered story ensues. Airey delivers her narrative by switching among the principal characters’ perspectives, not always chronologically. Roísín’s section embraces her own love affair with Michael and then her move to the Screamers’ house, now owned by an abortionist. Then comes a section devoted to Lyca Brady, Cora’s daughter, and next a focus on Michael, who visits Máire in New York. Later, Cora and Lyca will arrive there too, completing the tale’s rather-too-neat circularity. As family sagas go, Airey’s first work is notable for its breadth, but its consistently downbeat mood lends a chill, and the structure will challenge some readers.

Intelligent, intricate, but joyless storytelling.