The Woman of the House

The Phelans have owned Mossgrove for generations. But when it is put up for sale, the lengths to which Irish people will go to keep their land become clear. An enchanting novel by Ireland’s favourite writer.

With her first novel, this extraordinarily gifted storyteller brings her talents to bear on the tale of a rural Irish family caught between its love of the old ways and the encroachments of contemporary life. The story is that of the Phelan family, who have occupied the same home in the village of Kilmeen for generations, tending their land and livestock, surviving a feud with unscrupulous neighbors, forming part of the social backbone of their community. But as the older Phelans pass and their farm is handed on to the younger generation in the early 1950s, their longtime home is suddenly threatened from within. The threat comes in the person of an outsider, Martha, who marries Ned Phelan and proceeds to undermine their very way of life. And the solution comes in the form of Ned''s younger sister Kate, an aspiring schoolteacher, who is forced to draw upon every ounce of patience and determination in order to keep their homestead in their own hands - and her own dreams alive.