On the surface it appears to be a straightforward narrative about a happily married woman with a quiet, gentle husband, a rewarding career, and two lovely children. We soon learn that her daughter has grown despondent, introspective and uncommunicative, and this prompts her mother to re-examine her own youth and childhood. This brings us back to a turning-point in her life when she attended an Irish summer college at the age of 10. The narrative is split complementarily between the past and the present, illuminating both. This deceptively simple story is a pleasure to read. The writing is clear, plain, lucid and stylish. The artistry on the surface goes a long way down. Everyday emotions are invested with a charge that becomes more clear when people talk to one another. Éilís Ní Dhuibhne is equally accomplished in dealing with the worry of a mother whose child has emotionally departed and with the pain of a young girl meeting people her own age in an environment of freedom for the first time. The petty jealousies, the backbiting and the bitchiness are truly terrifying, just as the small successes are hugely uplifting. In some ways, this is the story of a generation that went to a certain kind of Irish college, and of another generation that has lots of words for the ailments of modern living but no more wisdom than before. While the story is compulsive and drives the novel along, we are being invited to think of other things as well. Even the most organised lives can be taken over by events, and irrational beasts lurk in the undergrowth of the suburban garden. Small ticks of personality can turn the world upside down. The past can be revisited, but it is never the same place. Éilís Ní Dhuibhne has shown in her Irish and English fiction that she is a readers' writer. They deserve this.
Alan Titley, Irish Times 4/10/2003