Everything That Is Beautiful by Louise Nealon

Everything That Is Beautiful by Louise NealonFor Niamh Ryan, the Foleys are family. Her childhood flew by on their farm, playing with her best friend Peter and his sister Kate all the while being doted on by their mother Helen and coached by their father Liam, a legendary former hurling player. Now, following a distressing series of events, the family ties are strained. Niamh receives drunken phone calls and messages from Peter who can't understand what derailed their burgeoning relationship

and the esoteric lessons of Maudie their maid

she was sent to stay with her hunchback uncle in Yorkshire

The mysterious centre offers a unique treatment for its troubled patients: it prescribes cats as medication

it is a guide to a more consoling

a disappeared thing no longer has any meaning

Kate's son

The result is an exploration of an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage

the chronicler of a country on the front lines of a seismic European war' Financial Times

so beautiful and so humane

and to young new recruits

As her characters try and fail to connect - via sex

with practical topics including: