The Coast Road
- Author Alan Murrin
- Narrator Jessica Regan
- Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date 9 May 2024
- Run Time 7 hours and 52 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Fiction: general and literary.
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What to expect
Bloomsbury presents The Coast Road by Alan Murrin, read by Jessica Regan
* WINNER OF THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS: NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR 2024 *
‘A perfect book club read ... Assured and powerful’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘I loved this novel ... An addictive read’ GILLIAN ANDERSON
‘Moves between rage, forgiveness and hope ... A stonkingly good novel’ SARAH WINMAN
‘A beautiful, accomplished debut’ LOUISE KENNEDY
It’s 1994 in County Donegal, Ireland, and everyone is talking about Colette Crowley: the writer, the bohemian, the woman who left her family to be with a married man in Dublin.
Returning to pick up the pieces of her old life, Colette finds that nothing – and everything – has changed. When the man to whom she is still married denies her access to their children, Colette enlists the help of Izzy, a housewife and mother of two, and the women forge a friendship that will send them on a spiralling journey – one towards a path of self-discovery, and the other towards tragedy.
A WOMAN & HOME and NB. MAGAZINE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024
* WINNER OF THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS: NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR 2024 *
‘A perfect book club read ... Assured and powerful’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘I loved this novel ... An addictive read’ GILLIAN ANDERSON
‘Moves between rage, forgiveness and hope ... A stonkingly good novel’ SARAH WINMAN
‘A beautiful, accomplished debut’ LOUISE KENNEDY
It’s 1994 in County Donegal, Ireland, and everyone is talking about Colette Crowley: the writer, the bohemian, the woman who left her family to be with a married man in Dublin.
Returning to pick up the pieces of her old life, Colette finds that nothing – and everything – has changed. When the man to whom she is still married denies her access to their children, Colette enlists the help of Izzy, a housewife and mother of two, and the women forge a friendship that will send them on a spiralling journey – one towards a path of self-discovery, and the other towards tragedy.
A WOMAN & HOME and NB. MAGAZINE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024
Critics Review
Beautifully written ... The novel is wonderful on what it means to live in a patriarchal society and the consequences women can suffer for trying to follow their dreams. Compelling
Murrin’s novel is immaculately crafted, his characterisation beautifully nuanced ... Murrin’s scrutiny of the community’s prejudice is shot through with humour, while he writes perceptively about love, desire and the limitations placed on women ... A compelling, compassionate page-turner
Packed with shenanigans – affairs, separations, deaths, priests and politics – the narrative unfolds in a gossipy rush that is well suited to the small town milieu. But Murrin attends to a different kind of desperation too, the real and heartbreaking lack of agency for women in difficult, unsatisfying marriages in twentieth century Ireland. This is what elevates his novel, bringing the lives of his distinctive female characters into high definition ... Murrin switches with remarkable ease between the perspectives ... An engrossing read ... A gripping character-driven novel that is accessible and literary in style
An absolute zinger ... A beautifully told, interwoven story full of really vivid characters ... If I didn’t know it was a man who wrote it, I would definitely say it was a woman who wrote it, because he gets under the skin of the women characters in particular really well. Highly recommend it, it’s a beautiful read
If the book club queen Reese Witherspoon relocated to the Irish Republic, this would tick all her boxes ... This is an assured and powerful debut, and Murrin shows impressive imaginative power in inhabiting the hopes and fears of married, middle-aged mothers. It’s well worth a slot in your book club calendar ... It is thoughtful, readable and funny, and even occasionally thrilling
‘Scandal, hypocrisy and the stigma of divorce make this Irish novel sing ... The story is crisply told ... Murrin is sceptically yet tenderly observant'
With nuanced observations, humour and heartbreak, the novel mirrors the backdrop of the sea, whose ebb and flow belies dangerous currents below the surface
I loved this novel. All the female characters are complex and fascinating, and full of anger and hope. I found it an addictive read
Alan Murrin is a gifted storyteller, his characters so fully realised I fretted for them as I read. A beautiful, accomplished debut
I have been rooted to my sun bed gulping it down ... What an absolute triumph, and even more astonishing for being a debut. I loved everything about it and can’t wait to read what he does next
Alan Murrin writes with the calm, poetic fluency of the best of Irish writers. The Coast Road is set in Donegal the year before divorce became legal in Ireland, and the many themes are equally – sadly – as relevant now. Women’s autonomy is beautifully scrutinised in a shifting tempo that moves between rage, forgiveness and hope. It’s a stonkingly good novel. Just read it
Tender, truthful and simmering with rage ... An emotionally eviscerating tale, told in deceptively calm prose
[A] Lyrical debut …With nuanced observations, humour and heartbreak, the novel mirrors the backdrop of the sea, whose ebb and flow belies dangerous currents below the surface
Cheating husbands and wayward wives in a tiny coastal town, set during a time when divorce in Ireland was illegal, Alan Murrin’s The Coast Road had me at hello. The writing is spare and elegant, the setting atmospheric — indeed, Murrin’s Ardglas is a character in its own right. An assured, gripping debut from an author I hope to read more of
Psychologically rich, emotionally resonant, and powered by a vivid cast of characters, The Coast Road explores the intimacies that bind individuals and communities together – for better and for worse. This is an incredibly satisfying novel, told with great tenderness and tremendous storytelling verve. A book to be savoured
A smashing debut ... Each of the characters is vividly rendered, and Murrin excels at portraying the rippling consequences of small-town gossip and intolerance. This is a marvel
This beautifully atmospheric novel is a dark, unsettling warning about how easily narrow attitudes can turn into dangerous ones. An eerie, urgent debut from an exciting new voice
Propelled by a gripping narrative and powerfully drawn characters The Coast Road makes for compulsive reading. Alan Murrin has written a poignant, utterly truthful story of passions prejudice and tragedy in a small town. Brilliant
An exceptional debut about marriage and freedom, about love and the ways it can heal and hurt us. A must read for 2024
This story of tragedy and strength casts you into the waves of small-town life
Murrin writes with a masterful ease and confidence ... This is a strong story well told
Murrin inhabits his female characters with impressive confidence
Alan Murrin is one of the sharpest new minds on the literary scene
An astonishingly assured piece of writing ... An intricate and deeply compassionate study of women’s lives and the forces that shape them
Impressive ... The Coast Road is entirely invested in its characters [and] captures suggestively a specific moment somewhere between Éamon de Valera’s conservatism and the vainglory of the Celtic Tiger era ... It is also an intriguing addition to the the swelling library of contemporary Irish novels – Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These [and] Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting
The setting of The Coast Road is both viscerally realised and intensely purposeful ... Murrin’s insight into the female experience is practically note-perfect
A compelling snapshot of one conservative Catholic community ahead of a landmark change to domestic life ... Murrin is an astute and sensitive writer ... in Murrin’s capable hands, it’s a story that will make you think – not least about the slow pace of change in Catholic Ireland
An assured, engrossing and enviably readable debut
Alan Murrin's The Coast Road weaves a story of suspense, resentment and desire in 1994 Ireland ... written in prose that’s as moody, striking and lovely as the landscape ... [a] compelling, suspenseful novel
Murrin's story has crispness, tenderness and observative power in equal measure
This beautiful, astute, and powerful novel has been one of our favourites since its publication
User Reviews
16/08/2025
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