Bernard MacLaverty's first novel in sixteen years is a profound examination of human love, loss and faith.

A retired Northern Irish couple, Stella and Gerry Gilmore, fly from their home in Glasgow to Amsterdam for a long weekend: a holiday to refresh the senses, to do some sightseeing, to take stock. Their relationship seems safe, easy, familiar but over the course of a few days we discover the deep uncertainties that exist between them. Gerry, once an architect, is a heavy drinker who is set in his ways. Stella is tired of his lifestyle, worried about their marriage and angry at his constant undermining of her religious faith.

The novel has been described by Colm Toibin as: "...a work of extraordinary emotional precision and sympathy, about coming to terms - to an honest reckoning - with love and the loss of love, with memory and pain... This is a novel of great ambition by an artist at the height of his powers."

Reader: Frances Tomelty

Writer: Bernard MacLaverty

Abridger: Kirsteen Cameron

Producer: Kirsteen Cameron. Show less