Under a Skellig Sky

‘For those homesick and longing for home, Maeve Binchy was the answer. Now Breda Joy brings Irish life alive with her zany characters and Irishisms. A delicious peep behind the scenes of the Ireland of a Thousand Welcomes.’ GEMMA JACKSON

Nomadic Carol O’Connell’s return to Glenosheen, overlooking the Skellig islands, is turning into one more in a series of half-baked decisions that pass for her life.

She searches for peace to recover from a broken relationship but her sleepy valley homeplace has woken up to Star Wars fever and mass tourism.

An experiment with Airbnb in her mother’s old farm guesthouse on the ‘Wet Atlantic Way’, a calamitous reunion with an ex and the rescue of a troubled friend sets her tumbling through the year.

As she follows her dream to become a successful artist before she hits forty, one of the bright lights under the ever-changing Skellig sky is a mystery New Zealand guest called Oliver. But tensions rise with the arrival of an eccentric, bingo-loving B&B inspector.

Friendship and the promise of a new love sustain Carol when she unwittingly introduces danger to the valley.