A finely wrought and lyrical novel that recounts the life-span of a quiet and shy woman, Tess Lohan; from her childhood in 1940s rural Ireland, her emigration to New York in the early 1960s, becoming a single mother and raising her son in the 1970s and 1980s, right through to the present day.

Short-listed on publication for the Irish Book Awards, this beautifully evoked novel opens with Tess aged seven, trying to understand and come to terms with her mother's death.

Mary Costello grew up in County Galway. Her collection of short stories, The China Factory, was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award. Academy Street is her debut novel, about which J M Coetzee wrote: "With extraordinary devotion, Costello brings to life a woman who would otherwise have faded into oblivion."

Read by Niamh Cusack.

Written by Mary Costello.

Abridged by Kirsteen Cameron.

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron. Show less