The Coast Road By Alan Murrin

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
Daily Mail

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
Observer

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
Irish Times

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
Barbara Scully, author of WISE UP [via Instagram]

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 … An assured and powerful debut, and Murrin shows impressive imaginative power
Sunday Times

‘Scandal, hypocrisy and the stigma of divorce make this Irish novel sing … The story is crisply told … Murrin is sceptically yet tenderly observant'
Telegraph

With nuanced observations, humour and heartbreak, the novel mirrors the backdrop of the sea, whose ebb and flow belies dangerous currents below the surface
Woman & Home, Book of the Month

I loved this novel. All the female characters are complex and fascinating, and full of anger and hope. I found it an addictive read
Gillian Anderson

Alan Murrin is a gifted storyteller, his characters so fully realised I fretted for them as I read. A beautiful, accomplished debut
Louise Kennedy, author of TRESPASSES

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
Gill Hornby

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
Sarah Winman, bestselling author of STILL LIFE

Tender, truthful and simmering with rage … An emotionally eviscerating tale, told in deceptively calm prose
Mail on Sunday

[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
Woman & Home, Book of the Month June 2024