She meets with her mother's best friend, Rosemary O'Shea, and those who knew her father and her griefstricken and disturbed grandmother. Elizabeth is left reeling as she delves in her mother's life, her unsettling romance with her father, Edward Foley, a farmer living in a remote area by the sea. He is visiting his gay father, Elliot in California, a man he has seen little of since his parents acrimonious split. In this narrative that goes back and forth in time, Patricia's life is slowly revealed as to how she ended up being a confirmed spinster and life long devoted single mother to her beloved daughter, Elizabeth.Įlizabeth has a 17 year old son, Zach, who she is over protective of and is constantly on her mind. Elizabeth thinks she knows her mother inside out, but her confidence in this takes a huge knock when she discovers a pile of ribbon wrapped letters in the back of Patricia's wardrobe.

The house is in dilapidated state and more worryingly, infested with rats which scuppers Elizabeth's plan for residing there for the short duration of her stay. She is less than keen on her remaining family, riddled with conflict and devious machinations, but she has to clear her mother's house with a view to selling it. Divorced New Yorker Elizabeth Keane returns home to Ireland and Buncarragh with the death of her mother, Patricia, to put her affairs in order. When it comes to relationships, there is not much in the way of cheering fare, with disappointment, intrigue, darkness, and stoicism from two different eras. Once again Graham Norton surprises me with his writing abilities in this well drawn story of small town Irish life and remote rural farming families.

A Keeper by Graham Norton