The Queen of Dirt Island

From the Booker longlisted author, and an Irish Times No.1 bestseller - a searing, jubilant novel about four generations of women and the stories that bind them.

''Beautiful, compassionate ... Donal Ryan at his inimitable best.'' MAGGIE O''FARRELL

''One of the finest novelists writing today...a haunting, exquisite masterpiece.'' RACHEL JOYCE

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This is a story about family, about all of the things it should be - and sometimes isn''t.

In Nenagh, County Tipperary, four generations of Aylward women live and love. The head of the family, Nana, is a woman who has buried two sons and whose life has been the family farm. Her daughter-in-law, Eileen, is estranged from her own parents, having ''shamed'' them and given birth to Saoirse. And then there''s Saoirse herself, eavesdropping on lives she cannot comprehend. It is only when they must battle for the inheritance of Dirt Island - a narrow strip of land