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Nora Webster is a novel about loss and reawakening.

It begins in the late 1960s as the world awaits the first moon landing and the first hints of trouble make themselves felt on Northern Ireland鈥檚 streets.

Nora鈥檚 husband has just died from heart disease, leaving her with two younger sons and two daughters who live away from home.

The story is seen through Nora鈥檚 eyes, so we never know any more than she knows. This deceptively simple style has the effect of imprisoning the reader in Nora鈥檚 world through every last moment of her bereavement.

But she is a steely character 鈥� so steely in fact, that she doesn鈥檛 seem to be aware of the effects their father鈥檚 death has had on the two boys, Donal and Conor. She sees all four of her children dealing with their grief, usually without intervening. But these were the days, of course, before emotions were talked about openly.

Nora is forced to return to her old workplace to make ends meet. But slowly she begins to emerge from what has happened and finds a resurgence through classical music, which her husband had disliked.

Nora Webster is a masterful character study and an evocation of grief in all its rawness, taking it well beyond the notion of loss and shared memories.

But despite the subject matter, it is a hopeful novel. It is about a woman building a new identity for herself, away from her husband鈥檚 shadow.

The restrained writing creates an enclosed world which I was sorry to leave when I finished reading. 聽