A story of family, selfishness and compassion on Ireland's Atlantic coast, from the Man Booker Prize-winner, Anne Enright.

The children of Rosaleen Madigan leave the west of Ireland for lives they never could have imagined, in Dublin, New York and various third-world towns. In her early old age, their difficult, wonderful mother announces that she has decided to sell the house and divide the proceeds. Her adult children come back for one final Christmas together in the family home, with the feeling that their childhoods are being erased, their personal history bought and sold.

Anne Enright was born in Dublin, where she now lives and works. She has published two collections of stories (grouped together as Yesterday's Weather), one book of non-fiction (Making Babies) and five novels, including The Gathering (which was the Irish Novel of the Year and won the Irish Fiction Award along with the 2007 Man Booker Prize) and The Forgotten Waltz (which was awarded the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction).

Read by Brid Brennan

Producer: Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4. Show less