Venus Reborn

by Martina Devlin

“There is no shame in being adopted. It means you were wanted. And chosen.”

Venus Macken is back in Ireland after more than a decade in London, but she has mixed feelings about the move. Except … her return to the wilds of Roancarrick to care for her elderly father offers the chance to find answers. Answers to a question that has haunted Venus all her life.

Venus is tired of feeling like an outsider. Who was her birth mother? Why was she abandoned? Surely the people who love her and reared her can help unlock the riddle of who she is.

Meanwhile there are distractions, among them arrogant artist Conor Landers, who helps rekindle Venus’s love for her childhood home.

As the sketchy details of what happened on a stormy night 32 years ago are drawn out, Venus begins to realise that knowing who she is matters less than understanding who she wants to be.

“Martina Devlin has pulled off a feat unusual in popular fiction, a page-turner which also has the ring of psychological truth” – Irish Times

388 pages, Paperback

First published October 6, 2004

About the author

Martina Devlin is an Irish novelist and journalist. She lives in Dublin with her husband David and their cat Chekhov - the latter snoozes at her feet and keeps her company while she writes. It's all a far cry from her Fleet Street days, when she went to Parkhurst (a maximum security prison) to meet gangland leader Reggie Kray, was shown how to do The Twist by the maestro Chubby Checker, and kept watch while Anthony Burgess of 'A Clockwork Orange' filled his pockets with all the uneaten cakes at their interview over afternoon tea. She has had nine books published, beginning in 2000. Her work has won a number of prizes including the Royal Society of Literature's VS Pritchett Prize and a Hennessy Literary Award, and she was twice shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards. A current affairs commentator for the Irish Independent, Martina has been named columnist of the year by the National Newspapers of Ireland. She is vice-chairperson of the Irish Writers Centre, and has a certificate as a chartered director from the Institute of Directors. But none of that impresses Chekhov the cat.

Reviews

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing much happens in this novel. Everything is known from chap 1. I cannot say it's not well written, because it is. But characters are flat and predictable. Far too long!! I'd give it 2 stars and a half but I cannot