Whitethorn Woods

" Binchy has an accessible, comfortable writing style and fine storytelling ability . . . [Her] stories of an Ireland in transition have pleased readers for years." - Joan Hinkemeyer, "Rocky Mountain News" " Maeve Binchy is a benevolent god of a novelist . . . "Whitethorn Woods "draws on her strengths: She can channel Irish voices with the best of them, and each of those voices has its own twisting story to tell . . . often with verve and humor." - Margaret Quamme, "Columbus Dispatch" " "Whitethorn Woods "is a tour-de-force for Binchy, who seamlessly inhabits all these narrators and gets their individual voices pitch-perfect . . . By the time you arrive at the last page, you' ll feel you know virtually everyone in [this] little corner of Ireland . . . Binchy is in top form." - Melinda Bargreen, "Seattle Times" " What could be sweeter than a trip to [an] Irish village packed with robust native characters? That' s exactly what Maeve Binchy offers in her latest novel . . . Love, longing, and rich scenes of daily life intertwine in this neatly constructed story." - Marjorie Kehe, "Christian Science Monitor" " Stellar Irish novelist Maeve Binchy can display unexpected depths for a crowd-pleasing author . . . One soon becomes engaged in the lives of more than two dozen characters . . . Touches of humor enliven the account, but Binchy' s chief stock-in-trade here is making relatively average lives colorful and worth our interest." - Maude McDaniel, "Bookpage" " In classic Binchy style, many diverse characters tell their own, sometimesoverlapping, stories . . . After [finishing], readers will want to call their mothers . . . An enjoyable peek into other people' s thoughts." - "Library Journal" " Binchy focuses her prodigious talent on a robust assemblage of characters embroiled in romantic and domestic crises. Inventively and intricately weaving a series of linked vignettes, [she] astounds with the versatility of the supplicants' voices . . . Binchy is at her best in this tender yet potent tale of a traditional land and people threatened and challenged by the forces of change." - Carol Haggas, "Booklist" " Binchy deliver[s] a panoply of richly drawn first-person characters . . . Stories of greed, infidelity, mental illness, incest, the joys of being single, the struggles of modern career women, alcoholism, and the heartbreak of parenting span generations, simply and poignantly. Binchy takes it all in and orchestrates the whole masterfully." - "Publishers Weekly" " Binchy inserts questions of faith into her usual romantic braid of multiple storylines . . . These are often fully realized stories that stand on their own . . . Binchy' s lilting Irish zest is undeniably addictive." - "Kirkus Reviews" UK reviews: " What readers are buying into with a Binchy book is a unique environment: a world of warmth and compassion in which a kind heart is prized above a pretty face, family life is celebrated and qualities such as decency and initiative are rewarded. This is the milieu of her latest novel . . . Binchy has always had a knack for character . . . It takes a particularly skilful writer to engage thereader' s sympathy [as she does] . . . These characters speak with their own voices directly off the page." - Martina Devlin, "The Irish Times" " Vintage Binchy. A touching, funny, optimistic book full of wonderful, well-observed characters." - Wendy Holden, "Daily Mail" " Binchy [is a] national treasure . . . In "Whitethorn Woods" her particular gift for creating a world and then drawing you in is employed with her usual skill [and] just the right combination of warmth, gossip and insight into human nature . . . Always maintaining a sense of humour, she effortlessly makes the reader feel that