I loved this tangled human drama from Irish writer Deirdre Purcell. Ms Purcell's presence in the North American market is not significant yet but she is a very popular Irish writer and this is her 10th novel. A young woman is imprisoned in 1944 by her parents for promiscuity and tragically she spends 35 years locked in her bedroom. This is not that unbelievable considering the tragic fate of many pregnant or by the standards of the day, promiscuous, unmarried girls in Ireland who were sent to the Magdalene institutions run by the Catholic church. The terrible abuse of these women has been the subject of several books and at least one movie. This practice continued into the 1970s.
While the book reads like a thriller, this is also a wonderful love story and of the ties that bind family.
Highly recommended. ( )