Book Review: The Home Scar by Kathleen MacMahon

What's it about?

"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."

Why we love it...

This book is just so beautifully written. It's a thoughtful, insightful look at grief and childhood trauma and the way they can distort our perceptions and memories.

The story follows siblings Cassie and Christo as they journey to Galway, retracing the steps of a seemingly carefree holiday before their mother died. Through a series of small moments, the truth of that long-ago holiday is gradually uncovered. Kathleen MacMahon's delicate prose and sensitive story-telling makes each careful reveal all the more heart-breaking.

The home scar referenced in the title refers to the mark made by limpets on rocks when they repeatedly return to the same spot and there's something beautifully poignant in the idea running through the book that there are places and moments that indelibly mark us and that draw us back. It's a powerful, compelling book which we thoroughly recommend.