The Home Scar

‘The home scar – that’s what they call the mark limpets make on the rock when they return.’

‘Wait, they leave the rock?’

‘Of course. How else would they survive?

On opposite sides of the world, half-siblings Cassie and Christo have built their lives around work, intent on ignoring their painful past.

When a dramatic storm in Galway hits the headlines, they’re drawn back there to revisit a glorious childhood summer, the last before their mother died. But their journey uncovers memories of a far less happy summer – one that had tragic consequences.

Confronted with the havoc their mother left in her wake, Cassie and Christo are forced to face their past and – ready or not – to deal with the messy tangle of parental love and neglect that shaped them.

The Home Scar is a luminous and precise story about the inheritance of loss and the possibility of finally making peace with it.
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‘A powerful story about legacy and loss and the possibility of reconciliation’ Irish Times

‘Her beautifully simple style belies psychological complexity . . . and her tone is wryly accepting’ Big Issue

‘Subtle and authentic’ Claire Fuller

‘A gorgeous story of sibling love. I thoroughly enjoyed following Cassie and Christo’s quest to discover the tangled roots of a past that binds them together’ Louise Nealon

‘Kathleen MacMahon’s subject is memory itself: how we remember – and the impact upon our future lives when our memories deceive us. Compassionate and poignant, The Home Scar is a work of considerable moral power’ Neil Hegarty

‘An exceptional novel by one of Ireland’s foremost literary talents. A book not to be missed’ Anne Griffin

‘A very grown-up novel about life and love, of course, and above all, the repercussions of a disrupted childhood . . . a real tour de force’ Christine Dwyer Hickey

‘Picks at the wounds only a mother can inflict . . . ambitious . . . intricate’ Sunday Independent