A Beautiful Loan

by Mary Costello

A young woman finds herself in and out of love in this intimate, intense novel from a “truly startling talent” (Kevin Barry).


In Dublin in 1985, nineteen–year–old Anna Hughes is in thrall to Peter Gallagher, an older, worldly man. Her obsessive longing for him leads to marriage, bereavement and, eventually, to a crushing betrayal.


When Anna meets a kindhearted Muslim man, she finds herself falling in love not only with him, but with the Muslim faith itself. For a while, Karim provides a refuge and offers renewed hope, but slowly Anna’s life begins to contract and she realizes she must find a way to break free.


Unfolding across twenty–five years, this is a gut–punch of a novel about the loss of innocence, the shame and humiliations of love, and the psychological cost of seeking salvation in others. A Beautiful Loan is a devastating story about what it means to be a woman, as well as a testament to literature’s ability to give us a language when we’re lost for words.

Genres: Fiction, Ireland, Literary Fiction, Irish Literature, Book Club, Ebooks, Contemporary

213 pages, Paperback

First published March 24, 2026

About the author

Mary Costello lives in Dublin. Her collection of short stories, The China Factory, was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award. Academy Street is her first novel.

Reviews

[Margot · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mary Costello has a great way with words and some passages are really poetic. But…..I grow weary of novels about spineless woman who float through life. This story has been told a few times too many. Perhaps it would appeal more to younger readers not ones in their sixties.

[Dem · Rating 2 out of 5]

I went into A Beautiful Loan by Mary Costello with high hopes, and for a while, it truly delivered. The first half of the novel is beautifully written—quietly compelling, with a strong sense of mood and emotional depth that completely drew me in.

However, as the story progressed, my engagement began to slip, and by the end, I felt deeply disappointed. What frustrated me most was the lack of any real redemption or meaningful resolution for the female character. I just felt let down by the protagonist’s choices in the second half.

It’s especially disappointing because the novel shows so much promise early on and the writing is beautiful and I had hoped for a better outcome.

A novel that starts strong but ultimately didn’t land for me. Not one for my favourites shelf.

[Ellen Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a stunning novel! I was fascinated at Anna’s life and the decades as they went by. From her first marriage and the chaos and heartbreak of it, to her love for her dog, and her interest in becoming a Muslim, there is so much to take in. As she finds who she really is, I felt the emotions she felt - grief, fear, longing, love, confusion. I already miss her since I’ve finished the book. It was truly as if I walked in her shoes as she narrates her life story. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5) An offbeat glimpse into the soul of an introspective Irish woman with shifting preoccupations. Anna is not interesting so much for the particulars of her life (marriage to Peter, a mountain climber who gaslights her; a miscarriage; a beloved dog) as for the philosophies that guide her. She is in turn fascinated with Jungian thought, Camus's life and works, and Islam - this last through her relationship with Karim, an Algerian Muslim man, after Peter is lost and presumed dead on a Himalayan expedition.

Anna presents her own narrative as a way of self-psychoanalyzing at age 45: looking back to see why she did what she did, what her state of mind was, and why she was susceptible to certain people and ideas. Partly it's that she was so young and impressionable when she met Peter, just 19 to his mid-30s. The Jungian therapist she starts seeing late in the book agrees with Anna that she's "porous ... permeable" but also a sensitive - Anna has premonitory dreams that revealed, e.g. her husband's infidelity and the ethnicity of her future lover to her before the fact. The complications of her life come through her entanglements with other people, whereas she's happiest when she's alone with her dog and her books, contemplating life.

As always with Costello's books, a lot of themes and character development are packed into a small number of pages, but this one won't stay with me like Academy Street did. The attempt to evoke the early 2000s through the titles of songs playing in a nightclub was cringe, but otherwise the sweep of time was well handled. As with Barcelona, there is a slightly heavy-handed animal rights message. I don't disagree, but there would be a way of conveying it more subtly. So this wouldn't be my first recommendation if you want to try Costello - probably my last, actually - but if you had a special hankering to read about women's psychological development and self-understanding this wouldn't be a bad choice.

[Eliza Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really great and gut wrenching chronicle of a woman whose meekness allows the men around her to control her life since she was very young. A testament to the beauty and solitude of finding oneself over the years, it reads more like a diary than a novel and is bare in its contemplative nature. A philosophical through line guides the reader’s emotional journey alongside narrator Anna’s, adding depth and intellect. Like a polished, grown up, and more desolate rendition of Sally Rooney’s Normal People.

[Daisy H · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s no denying that it’s beautifully written, but I’ve decided that I have no interest in books about women who stay in awful relationships without the reader getting even a hint of an explanation as to why.

[Caoimhe Galligan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this an interesting read especially in how it explores the way life experiences & the people around us can shape the choices we make.
I found the pacing quite slow, I listened to the audio book & the monotonous tone of the narrator might not have helped. I struggled with Anna’s inability to face life independently before making drastic life decisions. It was frustrating that she was so easily led by people in her life even when she was hurting by living life this way. I wanted to shake her at times. Wake up Anna!!

[Amy Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Irish novels, so I was really looking forward to A Beautiful Loan. The writing is strong and emotional, but I struggled with the main character. Anna’s repeated choices in unhealthy relationships made her hard to connect with, and some moments were frustrating.

There are themes about love and self-discovery, but the story didn’t fully work for me.

⚠️ Trigger warnings: infertility, animal neglect/loss

Overall, well written, but not for me.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

While there were some lovely passages in this novel it was not for me. I struggled with the character of Anna and the 25 plus years we spent in her company.

[Susan Fichandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my kind of book but it may not be for everyone. The narrative mines the interior of her mind and it has a psychoanalytic tone thought the writing was excellent.

[Text Publishing]

The following book reviews have been shared by Text Publishing – publisher of A Beautiful Loan

‘A book that grabs the reader from page one.’
Australian

‘Grounded, fully charged and realistic.’
Saturday Paper

‘There is no greater chronicler of the inner life at this moment. As artificial intelligence and big tech force an increasingly diminished definition upon us of what it means to be human, this novel reminds us that we are so much more.’
Guardian

‘Costello is one of Ireland’s greatest writers . . . Her prose is precise and focused and, like a stiletto blade, sinks deep . . . This is a big book in a small package, about one woman’s growth.’
Financial Times

‘A subtle, unsettling and deeply humane novel that lingers long after the final page.’
Sunday Independent

‘At times I was breathless with the intensity of this novel.’
Kate Evans, ABC Radio National, The Book Shelf

‘like a beautiful piece of music… I am filled with admiration for Mary Costello.’
Claire Messed, author of This Strange Eventful History

‘Mary Costello’s A Beautiful Loan creates a gripping and unsparing portrait of Anna Hughes, whose longing to find ‘safety and oneness,’ and to submit to love, deepens as both inner and outer worlds close in. This unsettling novel opened before me like a Rorschach test, troubling all my interpretations.’
Madeleine Thien, author of The Book of Records

‘This beautiful book has a hurrying heartbeat like a drum, hurrying us toward something we can’t bear to learn. Mary Costello’s writing is rich in knowing, in yearning, in grief, in a deep understanding of the heart.’
Roxana Robinson, author of Leaving

‘An exceptional, compulsive novel of love, loss, and courage. Told in poetic, clear-eyed prose, A Beautiful Loan is heartbreaking but unsentimental, and easily Mary Costello’s best work yet.’
Sinéad Gleeson, author of Constellations: Reflections from Life

‘Bubbling over with introspection and Anna’s philosophical, literary-laden musings, this is a novel about finding oneself. . . a fascinating character study of a woman quietly learning to defy expectations.’
Booklist

‘I loved this quiet story, which deftly illumines the perils of absolutism in love and faith.’
Molly Murn, author of Heart of the Grass Tree

[Andy Cochrane · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book club choice and I read this in a day, partly because I felt bad having not finished the previous two books in time.The first part of the book reminded me of Louise Kennedy's Trespasses - young girl falls for older man, doesn't quite fit in with his friends...but in this case the older man, Peter, is remote, insensitive and a serial adulterer and I don't understand why Anna stays with him for so long (especially after he left her at the hospital gates!). I found Anna rather unsympathetic (and needing a good shake) with her obsessions with Camus and Jung (I like Camus myself, not so much Jung, and the links to her dreams questionable). I guess these were meant to illustrate how easily she was led and unable to find her own path through life. This set up the second half of the book and her unlikely conversion to Islam, and when she found this too restrictive her 'escape' into therapy.
This slim book was certainly readable but I find such a passive female narrator tiresome.

[Paula Benson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe two and a half stars. Very frustrating main character who put her life in the hands of others and a writer trying to be too clever.

[Sheri Cardo · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Spoiler alert) I was enjoying this book very much when two-thirds of the way through, the main character did something unexpected and heinous that pissed me off: She went along with her boyfriend’s demand that her beloved dog be moved outside. She knew it was wrong, she knew her dog would suffer and she allowed it anyway. This was not a woman without agency, though she acted like it, which was another problem with the book. I don’t ever remember a book making me so angry and it totally changed my view of it. I cannot recommend it.

[CarolinaBookBliss · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Beautiful Loan by Mary Costello, narrated by Caitríona Ní Mhurchú

This was a beautifully written and deeply emotional listen. Mary Costello’s writing really draws you in, and I found myself completely captivated by Anna’s story. Her journey felt intimate and thought provoking.

The audiobook narration by Caitríona Ní Mhurchú added another layer to the experience. She did a wonderful job capturing the emotional depth of the characters and bringing Anna’s story to life in a very authentic way.

Overall, a moving and reflective story.
Thank You to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for the opportunity to listen and review this Audiobook.

[Hannahrose]

This book got me out of my 2 month slump-thank you.

Really beautiful meditation about how we lose ourselves, and how to find ourselves too. really connected with the main character, just wish we went a bit more in depth

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best novels I've read this year. A portrait of a deeply introverted woman who ends up in disturbing relationships as she strives to find meaning through love, Jungian analysis and Islam. It is painfully beautifully written.

[Gaïa · Rating 5 out of 5]

un très beau livre ; j'ai adoré

[Darina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Instantly abandoned at the mention of Israel. It’s 2026, it’s unnecessary and rude, almost on purpose. She could have chosen a different “interesting” thing to share about one of the characters.

[Rita Egan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mesmerising story of a young Irish woman whose porosity and idealism draws her into codependent relationships.

It's tone is reflective and mindful, perceptive and graceful, where bitterness might have been accepted.

I love the insights she gained through her philosophy studies and how her obsession with Camus seems to underscore her sentience. I'm pleased that "The Outsider" (L'Etranger) is fresh in my mind, because it is referenced a lot.

Her maleability and search for a system to live by seems at odds with her intellectual reasoning, and the devices which restrict a woman's ultimate freedom form part of her experience.
Her personal growth is redemptive and gratifying.

Beautifully written using deep interiority to explore the multitudes a person can contain.

[sabby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. I think watching how much Anna changes is really important. The first marriage, awful. Then she meets sweet Karim but feels like she’s missing out. Seeing her turn to Islam was beautiful too. I feel like there’s so many wrong thoughts gathered around Islam and during her worst time it saved her truly and she still does the little things that connects her. Nobody’s a perfect Muslim no matter how hard they try. Us woman all have had a similar experience with men and doing anything so they won’t leave unfortunately. So going through and reading the loss, love, confusion, heartbreak, depression felt similar. I loved watching Anna slowly find herself, and allow her to be alone not with a man. And boo dying really did the icing on the cake!!! - I was so sad. She loved a man who was unfaithful and still gave her all and thought the problem was her (been there done that)!! I think every woman needs to read this book shit men too! It’s such a raw book that goes through stuff that woman think/feel and deal with on the daily.

[Tara Mickela · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s hard for me to find empathy for this character who will not grow up even after she grows up.

[Súan Hanafey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stunning as usual with Mary Costello. Shy of two stars as I found Anna’s meekness went relatively unexplained.

[frenchbouquineur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un roman presque journal, une plongée dans la vie d’Anna que nous suivons au fil des années. Une irlandaise sensible, professseure, passionnée de lettres et de Camus, et dont la vie va être constamment « dirigée », parfois inconsciemment, parfois non, par les hommes qui partagent sa vie.
Ce n’est pas le premier roman que je lis à ce sujet, l’emprise masculine et la folie amoureuse étant deux sujets sur lesquels j’aime lire, mais celui-ci a une fluidité et une certaine poésie qui se démarquent à mon sens. En tout cas, je suis facilement entrée dans la tête d’Anna que je trouve « très juste ».
L’amour, les différences d’âges, la religion, les préjugés, etc.. je trouve que le roman dépeint très bien toutes les complexités d’une vie en fait, toutes ses strates et en peu de pages.

NB : je reste quand même perplexe face aux propos sur la psychanalyse qui transpirent du bouquin, j’ai du mal à concevoir qu’on porte encore aux nues cette pratique donc mon appréciation du livre et ma note en pâtissent en peu

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel captures all the exquisite sensitivities of a life filled with long retrospection, which provokes the reader to remember many of the private reflections that go into each person’s memories. Poignant at times, intense and vibrant throughout, it is truly an introspective look into what motivates each one of us as we continue through our vicarious lives.

[JacquiWine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have long been a fan of Mary Costello’s fiction, from her award-winning first novel, Academy Street, which charts the deeply affecting story of a quiet woman’s life, to Barcelona, an excellent collection of short stories exploring the distances between people and the emergence of fault lines in the closest relationships. In her ambitious (and somewhat underrated) novel The River Capture, Costello looks to James Joyce’s Ulysses as a touchstone, and there are literary influences too in her latest book, A Beautiful Loan, in which the protagonist, Anna, is deeply moved by the life and work of the French-Algerian writer and philosopher Albert Camus.

Like much of Costello’s work, A Beautiful Loan (the title comes from a passage in the Qur’an), is concerned with its protagonist’s inner life. When we first meet Anna in the novel’s brief prologue, she is looking back on her life as a forty-five-year-old woman, trying to ‘understand why we do what we do, or tolerate what we tolerate, or love who we love’.

…I am trying to understand what went on in my mind over two decades – the miasma of thought, of appetites and instincts, the little tremors of fear or shame; all those inner movements and emanations, those dimly perceived undercurrents that have agency over external actions and events. (p. ix)

What follows is a first-person account of Anna’s adult life in which she is drawn to, and ultimately distances herself from, two very different men, neither of whom provides what she truly needs to flourish. The novel is, in many respects, a journey of self-discovery for Anna, an extended search for the things that will give her life meaning, whether it be religion, literature, art or love for another creature – human or animal.

Having enjoyed a loving, sheltered upbringing on her family’s farm in Galway, nineteen-year-old Anna (now working in Dublin as a teacher), meets Peter in a nightclub, and her attraction to him is instantaneous. Despite the fact that Peter takes advantage of Anna’s drunken state to have non-consensual sex with her, Anna is consumed by love for this man and often remains at home, hoping he will call. Peter, however, is older and more self-sufficient than Anna, and his cruel, selfish nature soon begins to show.

And this is how it goes, this oscillating life. There is seldom a week when I do not experience some lurch, some punch of rejection, followed, a few days later, by a surge of elation. I am never free of him – he has taken over my mind. Alone, I cry. But he does not suffer, he is immune from suffering. Still, I am addicted to him and to these extreme feelings. I have never lived so deeply, so gravely, so intensely, and I may never do so again. (p. 36)

As their relationship develops, Peter proves increasingly evasive and unwilling to accommodate Anna’s needs. For instance, he refuses to have anything to do with her family in Galway and often spends his weekends climbing and hiking, leaving Anna unsure of when she will see him next.

–I’m not going to Galway at Christmas, he says.

I look at him, alarmed.

–Why not? I ask.

–I’m staying here – in my own home.

–But I always go home for Christmas.

–This is your home…You’re twenty-three years old, Anna, a married woman. You have to cut the umbilical cord with your family sometime. It’s not healthy, this…enmeshment with them.

It’s not healthy – this has become his mantra lately. You’ve been too sheltered always, he told me during a row last week, too mollycoddled all your life. It’s the reason you’re so gullible. You’ve never known hardship… (p. 49)

While Anna values having some time to herself, the flexibility to delve into the worlds of literature and philosophy that give her solace, Peter’s lack of emotion and commitment is concerning to say the least. (We are in 1985 here, which may account in part for Anna’s passivity when coupled with her lack of life experience. Anna also has a close relationship with her father, seeing him as the protector and provider for the family, and there is a sense that this might be influencing her perceptions of Peter. Alongside literature, Jungian psychology is also an important touchstone in the novel, particularly for Anna.)

To read the rest of my review, please visit:
https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026...

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Irish author Mary Costello has had a presence on this blog since guest reviewer Karenlee Thompson (whose novel Notes From the White Room is to be published in 2027) penned a review of  The China Factory (2012).  In 2019, I read her second novel The River Capture which featured a character who identifies with characters from Ulysses , paying homage to my favourite Irish author James Joyce.  Now in 2016, A Beautiful Loan is similarly 'literary' in the sense that there are plentiful allusions to books and authors and its protagonist identifies with Albert Camus.


And although I haven't read Academy Street (2014), this review at The Guardian suggests a similar preoccupation with a character who hovers in the wings rather than be at the centre of her own life.  Anna is a needy soul who craves certainty in an uncertain world, and she also yearns to know why her husband behaves the way he does. The reality is that most of us aren't always clear about our destructive patterns of behaviour, and she isn't clear about her own motives either. Especially not when she substitutes submission to a vengeful conception of God for submission to a domineering husband.

Another theme that resurfaces in this book is the animal cruelty thread: Anna's abhorrence for eating meat precipitates a row with her Muslim lover Karim.  His demands that her little dog Boo be forbidden the house where he's been cherished all his life — because he is 'haram' — shows the extent of her submission to his interpretation of Islamic practices.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2026/03/23/a...

[JimZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I much preferred Costello’s ‘Academy Street” to this novel. This novel started out really well with her meeting and getting married to her first lover, Peter, a man 16 years older than her, and the trials and tribulations that that marriage produced, told from her perspective. The second part of the book is about her trials and tribulations with her second lover, Karim, and for me it became less interesting. Costello went on long tangents about Albert Camus, Carl Jung, and the religion of Islam.

Overall, it didn’t work for me…. but maybe it has worked well with others. I imagine it has, given the positive blurbs on the back cover of the dust jacket, including from a writer I greatly admire, Claire Messud.

From Messud: “A ’Beautiful Loan’ is like a beautiful piece of music: true, pure, profound. Anna’s quest, in midlife, to understand herself and the forces that have shaped her thus far, moves and compels. The spirit of Camus, that human existentialist, hovers over the novel like hope. I am filled with admiration for Mary Costello.”
Note:
• I wonder how much in this book occurred to the author in real life because she has this statement on the copyright page: “Although in part inspired by the author’s life, ‘A Beautiful Loan’ is a work of fiction, and the usual rules of fiction apply: no person, place, or event in the book should be understood as a literal depiction of any actual person, place, or circumstance, and none should be construed as real.”

Reviews:
• https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
• https://anzlitlovers.com/2026/03/23/a...
• https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026...

[Cath L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anna, à Dublin en 1985, fait la connaissance de Peter, un homme plus âgé. Après quelques temps, malgré sa crainte de se retrouver enceinte, ils vivent ensemble. Peter reste très indépendant, passant des week-ends en randonnée ou avec des amis, ce qui convient à la fois assez bien à la jeune femme qui aime avoir du temps pour elle, mais la rend inquiète et nerveuse en même temps. Il lui faudra de longues années pour cerner vraiment Peter, et l'emprise impalpable qu'il a sur elle.
Le roman se déroule sur plus de vingt ans et Anna aura l'occasion de rencontrer un autre homme totalement différent de Peter. Karim est franco-algérien, il travaille à Dublin, est de son aveu même, un « mauvais musulman ». Sa fragilité touche Anna, pourtant méfiante à l'idée de nouer une relation nouvelle.
C'est avec beaucoup de finesse que Mary Costello décrit Anna, ses interrogations et contradictions. La jeune femme lit beaucoup, admire les ouvrages de Jung et les romans d'Albert Camus. Elle est tiraillée entre son besoin de solitude, et celui de partager sa vie avec une âme sœur, de fonder une famille avec lui. Ses deux expériences successives, et ses entretiens avec une psy plutôt géniale, vont peut-être finir par lui faire comprendre vraiment quelles sont ses aspirations profondes. [...] En dépit de quelques passages philosophiques assez pointus, j'ai beaucoup apprécié la lucidité et la justesse avec laquelle l'autrice rapporte cette large tranche de vie.
Un roman d'apprentissage qui apporte un éclairage intéressant sur l'histoire des femmes.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Beautiful Loan by Mary Costello will be published March 2026 2.75 stars from me. I received a free prepublication copy from the publisher, and wish I could be enthusiastic, but I can’t. I liked the writing; the author does a good job of bringing the reader in. I was so frustrated with the main character, though, that I wanted to slap her. Dublin, 1985, Anna falls in lust with Peter, an older man who disappears for weeks and weekends on high adventure trips. She never knows when she is going to see him again, and over and over refuses to question where he is going, and with whom. No one in her family likes him, nor her friends, his friends are rude to her (HELLO? GET A CLUE?) This goes on for years. Her next relationship is with a (originally) kindhearted Muslim man, Karim, who she keeps secret from her family and friends because of his religion and prevailing anti-Muslim sentiments. He eventually presses her to convert, and becomes controlling about where she goes, who she sees, what she wears, guilting her about her Irish Catholic belief system. A through line in the book is her beloved dog, who Karim forces to sleep outside in the cold. I was hoping Anna’s character would develop, and grow a backbone and stand up for herself, but it didn’t happen. Disappointed.