A Keeper: The Sunday Times Bestseller

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Elizabeth Keane travels with a heavy heart from New York to Buncarragh just north of Kilkenny. Her mother passed away and it is now up to Elizabeth to sort through her things and close up the house. She's a recently divorced mother of seventeen year old Zach. Zach will be spending time with his father in San Francisco during her absence. I didn't listen to the audio version much, but what I did hear, I enjoyed. Five stars to the audio performance. It's a sad and lovely book, brimful of tenderness and compassion, where the revelations of the past upturn the perceptions of the present. - SUNDAY EXPRESS The rooms weren’t empty, they were filled with the absence of someone. The dead don’t vanish, they leave a negative of themselves stamped on the world.’

This book is nothing like his first book ( ) which I also loved but it has some similar themes; small town Ireland, dark humour, real life. I raved about Holding two years ago ... A Keeper is even better. A powerful, very sad story, beautiful writing, two time frames that are perfectly balanced. Outstanding. Will easily be one of my books of 2018.' JOHN BOYNEFrom the bestselling author of HOLDING comes another sweeping, evocative tale set on the coast of Ireland.

A Keeper has the vibes of Misery by Stephen King in some respects. What begins as a mother/daughter relationship novel will soon take on a much, much darker theme. And that, Boys and Girls, is a delightful plum pudding. It's a sad and lovely book, brimful of tenderness and compassion, where the revelations of the past upturn the perceptions of the present.' SUNDAY EXPRESS If you haven’t yet read a Graham Norton novel, do yourself a favour and hop to it. He’s a brilliant writer and each of his novels are so different from each other, yet instantly recognisable as his work, offering a reading experience that is both a comfort and good for your soul.

The book's setting is Ireland in the present and the 1970s. Maybe I have been reading too much Tana French and Maeve Binchy, but the book didn't feel "Irish" to me. Even Elizabeth didn't. Maybe because she had been away for so long, but there's no mention of her having an accent or how her relatives sound, etc. We get descriptions of the house and farm and that's it. It's terribly unfair. While it took Margaret Mitchell 10 years to compose 'Gone With the Wind', and 12 years for Victor Hugo to finish 'Les Miserables', Graham Norton appears to have thrown this together over the course of a rainy Saturday afternoon and published it the following Monday without any further thought or attention. It's kind of cosy but also sad and very moving(I did cry a bit) ...it's just a fab read and one of my favourites this year. Graham Norton has won 9 BAFTAs for Best Entertainment Performance, and Best Entertainment Programme. He presents The Graham Norton Show on BBC1, a show on BBC Radio 2 every Saturday, and is a judge on RuPaul's Drag Race UK. Norton won the Special Recognition Award at the National Television Awards in 2017.

I raved about HOLDING two years ago ... A KEEPER is even better. A powerful, very sad story, beautiful writing, two time frames that are perfectly balanced. Outstanding. Will easily be one of my books of 2018.' JOHN BOYNEFrom the bestselling author of Holding comes another sweeping, evocative tale set on the coast of Ireland. years earlier, a young woman stumbles from a remote stone house, the night quiet but for the tireless wind that circles her as she hurries further into the darkness away from the cliffs and the sea. She has no sense of where she is going, only that she must keep on. What a wonderful journey Graham Norton takes a reader on! In its simple, straightforward ways he delivers an array of emotions. A Keeper is a dual narrative. We’re with Elizabeth in the present day and her mother, Patricia, forty years earlier. Elizabeth has returned to Ireland to finalise her mother’s affairs after passing away. In the wardrobe she finds a box with some letters that appear to be written by her father, a man whom she has never known, who she believes passed away when she was but an infant. That box, and an appointment with her mother’s solicitor, unravels everything Elizabeth believes to be true about herself and her family.

This compelling new novel confirms Graham Norton's status as a fresh, literary voice, bringing his clear-eyed understanding of human nature and its darkest flaws. I had a couple of “eye roll” moments with this book, and I noticed several detail oversights, but this was an excellent read for me. There wasn’t a single character here I didn’t like, or at least sympathize with (including Edward’s deranged mother Catherine) and I loved the setting. Recommended to mystery fans or anyone looking for a riveting read on a rainy day.Graham Norton has been on TV for years in the UK. He is a comedian who regularly host a chat show and the Eurovision Song Contest. This is his second novel. His first novel I loved so when I seen he had this new novel coming out, I just had to get myself a copy. It's set in Buncarragh, Ireland. The duel storylines gel well together. It's only while you are reading the book, you realise the significance of its title. A story of missed chances, love and loss. A well written book that at one point, i did find a bit far fetched. I did enjoy his first novel, Holding, a bit more than I did this novel. But I will be looking forward to reading more from this Graham Norton in the future. The next chapter is the "Now" and we meet a young single mom who has just learned her mom has passed. She needs to go to Ireland and clear out her house and wind up her affairs. She is dealing w/the loss of her mom and also with her teen son, whose situation is complicated because she is raising him alone.