Other People's Lives

by Kathleen MacMahon

‘I found myself taking screenshots to send to friends because MacMahon nails it over and over again’ Claire Kilroy

‘Incisive, witty and tender, there’s not a woman in the country who won’t relate to this fine and thought-provoking novel.’ Christine Dwyer Hickey

‘MacMahon is an astute chronicler of modern life’ David Park

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‘Marriage was the biggest decision of their lives and yet they made it so lightly it was barely a decision at all’

As schoolgirls, Justine and her best friend Iseult dreamed of a future that revolved around marriage. They saw it as a happy ending, never imagining for a moment that the reality would be more complicated.

Coming up to fifty, they're still best friends. Justine has been married to Iseult’s brother for twenty-five years and lives in her childhood home. Iseult has spent her adult life abroad, her marriage clearly unhappy for reasons she won't discuss.

When Justine’s daughter suddenly announces her engagement, Justine is thrown into planning a big family wedding. Afraid that her daughter is making a mistake, she finds herself questioning the choices she and Iseult made. It's a crisis of confidence that tests her in surprising and transformational ways.

From the Women’s Prize longlisted author of Nothing But Blue Sky and The Home Scar, Other People’s Lives is a captivating story about the decisions we make in a heartbeat, and their lifelong consequences.

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‘A book to inhale’ Belinda McKeon

'Warm-hearted and relatable, perfectly captures the messiness of modern family life' Aingeala Flannery

‘Beautiful’ Hilary Fannin

‘Thoughtful and provocative, a beautifully narrated story of friendship and marriage’ Anna Fitzgerald

'Simply exquisite. MacMahon is one of Ireland's finest writers.’ Anne Griffin

‘Perceptive, tender, astute, beguiling’ Martina Devlin

‘I really and truly loved this tender, deeply satisfying novel’ Orla Mackey

‘So beautifully observed, so penetrating, so coolly aware of the texture of people’s lives.’ Neil Hegarty

‘This wise, truthful novel explores brilliantly all the complexity of women's lives’ Anne Tiernan

‘Thought-provoking and utterly absorbing’ Sinéad Crowley

Genres: Fiction, Family Drama, Ireland

378 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 7, 2026

About the author

Kathleen MacMahon is an award-winning television journalist with Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTE, where she reports on the major international stories. The grand-daughter of the distinguished short story writer Mary Lavin, Kathleen lives in Dublin with her husband and twin daughters. THIS IS HOW IT ENDS is her first novel.

Reviews

[Chloe]

A quiet book that moves slowly, I can see that this would be an enjoyable, reflective read for some. Unfortunately, this left me feeling bored, frustrated and questioning the point.

Justine has a good life, but worries herself rotten about whether she is living the right life to be appreciated by her family and those she loves. The complexity of her life and the lives of those around her, whether her best friend, family or those she works with as a counsellor, leave her questioning and worried about relationships and who we are in each of them.

This started strong for me, but ultimately ended up feeling like a slog to get through, and I kept waiting for something to happen. Though it’s more realistic for the frustrations Justine feels at being overlooked by her family to not be addressed and to just simmer without any resolution, I would have preferred for a moment for Justine to snap and ask for the respect she tries to give to others that threads throughout this novel. There’s a frustration in the reality of this story, and in the lack of resolution, for me, but can appreciate that a certain time and maybe age of person may appreciate this story as something that feels true to them. Those who loved My Brilliant Friend will enjoy this, and especially those who love quieter rumination without resolution.

Thanks to Netgalley and Sandycove for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Saoirse Flynn]

What started off as a strong depiction of women’s experience in marriage and motherhood unfortunately fell quite flat for me. The revelations of various married women, young and old, were not new to me, I like many other female readers I imagine found them relatable to a point of enragement. However once we get to part 2 practically nothing happens. I was holding out hope that Justine would break the mould and demand the change she so clearly wanted but alas that was not the case. I also found the lack of honest conversation with her daughter regarding the truths of her impending marriage disjointed from the plot? Justine spends 90% of the book picking apart her marriage, her in laws marriage and her best friends marriage but when it comes to her daughter she offers no insight and lets it happen anyway, dooming her daughter to the same thankless fate.

Maybe that’s the point, maybe the aim was to highlight that generation after generation we condemn our daughters, sisters and friends to the same monotony of marriage as the generations before us did but it’s not what we needed. Radical change or a runaway bride would have been preferred.

[Georgina Reads_Eats_Explores]

This was my first MacMahon novel and it will not be my last.

Other People’s Lives is a quiet, thoughtful and beautifully observed novel about marriage, friendship, family, motherhood and all those choices we make when we’re young that can look very different decades later.

Justine is approaching fifty. She is married to her husband John twenty-five years, has reared three children, works as a therapist, and spends much of her life looking after everyone around her. When her daughter unexpectedly announces her engagement, it sparks something in Justine. Suddenly she’s reflecting on her own marriage, her friendships, her past and the life she has built.

This isn’t a plot-heavy novel. There are no huge twists or dramatic revelations. Instead, MacMahon gently draws you into Justine’s thoughts and memories, building a remarkably rich portrait of an ordinary life. And that’s exactly what makes it so compelling.

The friendship between Justine and Iseult sits at the heart of the novel. They know each other since childhood and yet, as the story unfolds, Justine begins to realise how much of her friend’s life remains unknowable. It’s a fascinating exploration of how even the people closest to us can carry private joys, regrets and disappointments that never quite make it into conversation.

What lands most sharply is how MacMahon captures the emotional and domestic labour so many women carry. Justine spends so much time worrying about everyone else that she barely stops to consider what she wants herself. I suspect plenty of readers will see parts of themselves in her.

The writing is warm, perceptive and often very funny. The family dynamics feel wonderfully authentic and the Dublin setting is woven through the novel beautifully. It’s one of those books that feels less like reading a story and more like spending time inside somebody’s life.

A quietly absorbing, brilliantly observed novel about midlife, friendship, marriage and the endless game of shoulda, woulda, coulda.

Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review. All thoughts are my own.

[Tara Russell]

Absorbing, although it's not exactly an action packed read, but the minutiae of family life, of multigenerational relationships, of time passing and of the different facets of love and friendship are beautifully explored. A subtle read.

[Grainne McMahon]

Other people's lives, relationships, ups and downs all beautifully observed. I enjoyed the calm of the story.

[Elina]

3.75 ⭐️

[Cathán]

Realising I really need the audio book for this so I’mma wait for my hold

[Audrey D]

Well written - an enjoyable read. Being about the same age as the main characters myself meant that this book resonated with me.

[Stephen]

Really well written like all her books. You really feel for Justine who has a good life, but doesn’t feel like she’s done enough or what she does is appreciated by her friends and family.

She is also a councillor so hears the private complaints from many women about their relationships but sometimes can’t square that with how they act outside of those sessions. The complexity of other people’s lives and if it’s possible to understand them is examined throughout but without moralising.

The contrast to her best friend is interesting and the relationships with the grown up children is well observed.

A gentle book on the surface to read with hidden depths building to a satisfying end.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sandcove for the arc

[Ophelia]

The author wrote one of my all‑time favourites, Nothing But Blue Sky, so her novels are always an automatic buy for me. As in her earlier work, she captures relationships, life’s quiet cruelties, and the texture of ordinary love with such elegance and emotional intelligence.

This new book is beautifully written, and I found myself wanting to return to it whenever I put it down. It doesn’t build towards a dramatic reveal, and I did feel a touch of disappointment at the ending, but the journey itself was absorbing and tender. A thoughtful, beautifully crafted book.

[Martha.O.S]

4.5 ⭐️ I can’t remember where I heard about this book but I remember thinking it was my kind of book and immediately requested it from the library. It was truly excellent.

Set in Dublin, Justine is a mother to three grown-up children, married to her best friend Iseult’s brother and living in her childhood home next door to her in-laws, Pa and Lolly on one side, and mother Maud, on the other. Justine represents the typical Irish mammy: she seems to be the one to do everything for everyone, to smooth conflict or pre-empt and prevent disharmony, listen to everyone’s woes, attend to ageing parents and now that the children are grown and she works outside of the home, keep down a mentally demanding job. She is at the stage in her life when she is questioning her choices, feels quite trapped and not quite unhappy enough to make drastic changes, but is looking at alternative lives and choices people have made. When her daughter Ruth out of the blue announces she intends getting married, Justine finds herself very torn and unable to fully embrace her daughter’s decision. As far as plot goes, that is basically it. But for me, the character development and profiles that she presents are so beautifully realised that the novel lacks nothing.

I loved Justine as a character, her warmth and generosity but even more so, her humanity, complexity and honesty. She often struggles to do the things expected of her, and while she loves her family, she sometimes really doesn’t like them. She is the best of their circle to tolerate Lolly, her high maintenance mother-in-law, and by contrast has a nightly nightcap with her own eccentric mother, who wryly observes the folly of everyone from her distant perch of having opted out. We get a look into her marriage, the daily frustrations, the mundanity and often distance but also moments of intimacy. We see other couples: the queen Lolly and long-suffering Pa; her best friend, Iseult and philandering Simon. Justine wonders what it is that keeps couples together, concluding that it must be love in the end, although Iseult would have a very different opinion. In conversation about what women want, she concludes that it is simply to be noticed.

I really loved this novel. I felt it was a real privilege to be spend time in this family, to understand how people are the same and also unique the world over and how every couple has their own intimate way of being, and can work beyond any reasonable expectations one might have from the outside looking in.

[Andrea Hulme]

This was a fantastic observation on life, and an ordinary life too, that I really enjoyed. It will definitely resonate with people who at a certain point on their lives and look back and wonder about the choices that have been been made when younger and how things may have been different if a different option or choice had been made. Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda springs to mind.

It is a quiet and unassuming book. There isn't any huge drama going on, it is not action packed but it does deliver a really funny, relatable portrait on life, especially a woman's life. In this case we meet Justine, who is approaching 50. She spends a lot of the time in this book reflecting on her life, decisions and experiences.

Justine has been married to her best friend's brother for 25 years. Iseult (the best friend) left Ireland when she married her husband, Simon, so Justine is the daughter left to look after not only her own family but also her in-laws. Justine still has her twin sons at home when her daughter announces her surprise engagement and marriage, and Justine is pulled in multiple directions as she juggles the demands and needs of her family...something that lots of people go through every day. Justine is also questioning her own marriage.

It felt like we were in Justine's head throughout the book, going backwards through time to see how life revolved and how she got to this point. You could really feel empathy for her situation. Best friend, Iseult, did not feature in this book as much as Justine. She remained a bit of a distant figure. She came across as cold and detached and I think I might have liked a more in depth look at her and maybe see things a bit more from her point of view. You could see they were best friends and talked together all of the time. It just felt a little one sided but that is a minor observation.

Other People's Lives is a brilliantly observed, funny, poignant and utterly real portrait of a mid-life woman and her family. I loved it.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

[Cleopatra Pullen]

Kathleen MacMahon’s Other People’s Lives is almost a novel without a plot in the traditional sense, and that’s precisely what makes it so quietly absorbing. Instead of big narrative turns, the book offers a beautifully observed, interior portrait of Justine as she moves through the months leading up to her eldest daughter’s wedding. The external events are minimal; the real story unfolds in her thoughts.

Justine and her lifelong best friend Iseult once imagined marriage as the natural happy ending. Decades later, Justine has been married to Iseult’s brother for twenty‑five years, still living in her childhood home, while Iseult’s own marriage, kept at a distance, both geographically and emotionally, seems far less secure. When Justine’s daughter suddenly announces her engagement, it jolts her into re‑examining not only her daughter’s choices but the ones she and Iseult made long ago. That crisis of confidence becomes the quiet engine of the novel, prompting her to look closely at the marriages around her and, inevitably, at her own.

What follows is an observational, deeply relatable exploration of how relationships actually function behind closed doors. The author captures the small frictions, private loyalties, unspoken compromises and unexpected tendernesses that accumulate over years. The book becomes a kind of reflective mirror: as Justine compares and contrasts the marriages in her orbit, it’s impossible not to hold up our own relationships alongside them. The effect is simple, touching, and often strikingly true.

This is a novel that resonates not because of what happens, but because of what is noticed. Kathleen MacMahon’s writing is perceptive and warm, and her depiction of mid‑life uncertainty feels authentic without ever becoming heavy. For readers who appreciate character‑driven fiction and the emotional texture of everyday life, Other People’s Lives is a thoughtful, quietly compelling read.

[Kate O'Shea]

Justine and Iseult have been friends since childhood but even though they did both marry and have children their lives could not be more different. Justine married her childhood crush John, Iseult's brother. Iseult married Simon, a suave and sophisticated man whose job has taken them and son Finn around the world.

Just as life seems to be settling and Justine's job running workshops gives her more of an insight into the lives of othewomen, like her, who are not necessarily delighted with their husbands, Justine's daughter Ruth announces she is getting married. It throws Justine and John into a whirlwind of emotions and gives Justine time to reflect on her and Iseult's marriages.

Other People's Lives is exactly that - a book about ordinary people who are dealing with ordinary worries during a stressful time in all their lives.

I confess I did not particularly take to any of the characters. Whilst the complaints about wives who end up "doing it all" are familiar I found myself thinking that, as women, we make a rod for our own backs and if half the jobs were ignored then nobody would care or notice. I know this won't be a popular observation.

Other than the wedding and another minor difficulty with Iseult's son, Finn, the book really does just deal with the mundanities of daily life.

If you enjoy a purely observational novel then you will enjoy Other People's Lives. I woukd have liked a little more action/drama.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Penguin General UK for the digital review copy.

[Claire Fuller]

This is what they call a quiet book I suppose, in that nothing very dramatic happens, but what I loved is that it is shouting about women in mid-life - those caring for the elderly and caring for their children, and women questioning the choices they made so blithely when they were younger. MacMahon is so good at understanding and describing what might be seen as minor challenges, but are exactly what make up our real lives.
Justine has been married to her best friend's brother for 25 years. Iseult (the best friend) left Ireland when she married her husband, Simon, so Justine is the daughter left to look after not only her own family but also her in-laws. Justine still has her twin sons at home when her daughter announces her surprise engagement and marriage, and Justine is called on from every direction, while at the same time questioning her own marriage.
Other People's Lives is a brilliantly observed, funny, poignant and utterly real portrait of a mid-life woman and her family. I loved it. 

[Derval]

No matter the individual details of their situation, it was a universal fact that women's lives conformed to other people's lives, while the lives of men ploughed straight through them, like a motorway tunnel.

"They want someone to notice all the things they do for people. They want someone to witness their lives, before they die. That's what women want from marriage, but most of them don't get it. That's why they're so angry."

I had high hopes for this book, and they were not met. I sympathised with Justine to a point, and then I didn't. When someone feels SO sorry for themselves, I tend to lose my ability to care. Yes, her family took advantage of her and her husband was fairly terrible - but she let them be!! Why was she friends with Iseult? Why was she constantly playing the martyr? Towards the end of the book, she gets her period and her response is essentially, "not me, not today!" Come ON. And then the book ended quite abruptly! I think Mona and Finn were the only characters who weren't drags. Pros: Well-written. Credible characters. Women as central characters.

[Ella]

A beautiful, lyrical story that feels both specific and relatable. In many ways, the central relationship reminded me of 'My Brilliant Friend'. I really loved being inside Justine's head – I felt like her personality was incredibly well observed and not a 'type' of woman often represented in fiction. I also found the style that fragmented between present and past extremely effective, although I did have a sense that the narrative was building to some larger revelation that was somewhat frustrated by the end. My only major complaint would be the characterisation of Iseult –I feel like Justine, Moira and Lolly were all given so much more empathy and internality while Iseult remained cold and distanced from the reader and the novel finished without much actual insight into her descision-making. Also, we were frequently told how they were such great friends who could talk for days but I feel that as a reader I was never quite convinced of or fully shown their closeness.

[The Book Nook (Jennie)]

Other People's Lives is a compelling and absorbing read. I particularly loved the friendship between Justine and Iseult, which felt authentic, nuanced, and central to the story. The author does a great job of building tension while exploring the complexities of relationships, secrets, and the lives we think we understand from the outside. The characters felt believable and layered, and the story raised thought-provoking questions without ever losing its momentum.

[Helen]

Kathleen writes beautifully her stories are gentle and thought provoking. This is a slow moving book about families and their differing lives it has great understanding of how people live . Iseult and Justine have been lifelong friends and become sisters in law . The wedding descriptions in the book are wonderful all poignantly pointing out that when one marries no thought is given the lifelong commitment which follows.

[Sinéad Gilligan]

A story that follows Justine, and the various relationships in her life, her husband, her children, her kids, her mum and her in-laws. I enjoyed the contrast between her relationship and Iseult’s relationships. I did feel sorry for her as she always seemed to put everybody else first. Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advanced copy for an honest review.

[Hadas]

It's August now, and I have no idea when I actually finished this book. I tend to put off rating them until I'm ready to write a review, and then I forget. This book was sort of about life itself, in the same way Elizabeth Strout's books are, and it was both cozy and heartwarming and sometimes not quite engaging, in the same way Strout's books are.

(NetGalley ARC)

[MaryB]

This may not be for everyone but I absolutely loved it - it was a really well written, well observed novel with strong characters - I was completely immersed in their lives - this was a wonderful reading experience .

[Becka]

This is an excellent character study, but by the end I was so frustrated by Justine's passivity to how other people treat her that I wanted to scream into a pillow. I don't think I'll be reading the author's other novels because they sound very similar from blurbs.

[Rebecca Jones]

2.5 :(

[Laura Candon]

I loved this book, a relatable story of a Dublin family that was well written and an enjoyable read!

[Nicola Bayly]

Reading this book is like languishing in a warm bath, it's a complete balm. There are such vivid descriptions and poetic turns of phrase, it's one to savour.

[Dymphna Crowe]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was insightful and absorbing, touching on marriage, friendship and memory. We never really know what is happening in other people's lives.

[Claire Fox]

Enjoyed the writing style but kept waiting for something to happen

[Sophie]

Uk maybe i actaully understand the appeal, how its a loved in memabout marriage and life and love ahat whateved. This is js so dull and boring sorry

[ruthie]

I kept waiting for ✨more✨and then I realised it wasn’t going to happen. I love a family saga, I prefer more drama though!