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Rainsongs
Newly widowed, Martha Cassidy has returned to a remote cottage in a virtually abandoned village on the west coast of Ireland for reasons even she is uncertain of. Looking out from her window towards the dramatic rise of the Skelligs across the water, she reflects on the loss of Brendan, her husband and charming curator, his death stirring unresolved heartache from years gone by. Alone on the windswept headland, surrounded by miles of cold sea, the past closes in.
As the days unfold, Martha searches for a way forward beyond grief, but finds herself drawn into a standoff between the entrepreneur Eugene Riordan and local hill farmer Paddy O'Connell. While the tension between them builds to a crisis that leaves Paddy in hospital, Martha encounters Colm, a talented but much younger musician and poet. Caught between its history and its future, the Celtic Tiger reels with change, and Martha faces redemptive choices that will change her life forever.
As the days unfold, Martha searches for a way forward beyond grief, but finds herself drawn into a standoff between the entrepreneur Eugene Riordan and local hill farmer Paddy O'Connell. While the tension between them builds to a crisis that leaves Paddy in hospital, Martha encounters Colm, a talented but much younger musician and poet. Caught between its history and its future, the Celtic Tiger reels with change, and Martha faces redemptive choices that will change her life forever.
225 pages, Paperback
First published January 11, 2018
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314 people want to read
About the author
Sue Hubbard
50 books20 followersSue Hubbard is a freelance art critic, novelist and poet. Twice winner of the London Writers competition she was the Poetry Society’s first-ever Public Art Poet. She was also commissioned by the Arts Council and the BFI to create London’s biggest art poem that leads from Waterloo to the IMAX. Her latest collection Ghost Station was published by Salt Publishing in 2004. Depth of Field, her first novel, was published in 2000. John Berger called it a “remarkable first novel.” Sue is a regular contributor to The Independent and The New Statesman where she writes on contemporary art. In 2006 she was awarded a major Arts Council Literary Award.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
October 11, 2018
An absolutely beautiful yet melancholy rendering of time and place. An almost deserted villagee on the west coast of Ireland, a village overlooking the Skelligs, the huts, where monks onve lived in almost total deprivation. Beautifully described I could almost feel the constant mist, the wind on my face, the lonliness and the beauty entwined.
"As she heads towards the bay, the sea is calm, the surf white as a wedding dress, the brown mountains behind Waterville soft and undulating. It might almost be spring."
It is here Martha comes, to a cottage that belonged to her husband, she comes in grief at his death, but also to empty the place of his possessions. The Skelligs in their raw beauty, a sight that has a different meaning for Martha. The Celtic tiger has reared its head, new money and a way to make more consuming men, and a way of life that had endured centuries. A limited range of characters, each representing something different. Paddy, holding on to the old ways, Colm, who straddles both the old and new with his poetry, and his love for the land, way of life of his family.
"He climbs on through the window and dleet towards the tower, though there's too much mist for him to see the Skelligs. Ahead the sky and ocean merge in a grey veil that stretches away towards America. How he loves this place. The savsgery, the untamed wildness. Here on the edge of the land, the edge of Europe. He can feel it in his bones, the threads and connections running back through the centuries."
Then there is Eugene, a sort of Lord of the Manor type, who has grandiose plans for the land, some belonging to others. All will meet, and their meeting will effect each other in various ways. The past against the future, grief and healing, and a love for the land that can't be denied. Beautiful book, yes sad too but a truly amazing read.
ARC from Edelweiss.
"As she heads towards the bay, the sea is calm, the surf white as a wedding dress, the brown mountains behind Waterville soft and undulating. It might almost be spring."
It is here Martha comes, to a cottage that belonged to her husband, she comes in grief at his death, but also to empty the place of his possessions. The Skelligs in their raw beauty, a sight that has a different meaning for Martha. The Celtic tiger has reared its head, new money and a way to make more consuming men, and a way of life that had endured centuries. A limited range of characters, each representing something different. Paddy, holding on to the old ways, Colm, who straddles both the old and new with his poetry, and his love for the land, way of life of his family.
"He climbs on through the window and dleet towards the tower, though there's too much mist for him to see the Skelligs. Ahead the sky and ocean merge in a grey veil that stretches away towards America. How he loves this place. The savsgery, the untamed wildness. Here on the edge of the land, the edge of Europe. He can feel it in his bones, the threads and connections running back through the centuries."
Then there is Eugene, a sort of Lord of the Manor type, who has grandiose plans for the land, some belonging to others. All will meet, and their meeting will effect each other in various ways. The past against the future, grief and healing, and a love for the land that can't be denied. Beautiful book, yes sad too but a truly amazing read.
ARC from Edelweiss.
July 4, 2023
“The years have made me bitter, the gargle dims me brain
Cause Dublin keeps on changing, & nothing seems the same
The Pillar & the Met have gone, the Royal long since pulled down
As the grey unyielding concrete, makes a city of my town
“Fare thee well, Sweet Anna Liffey, I can no longer stay
& watch the new glass cages, that spring along the quay
My mind’s too full of memories, too old to hear new chimes
I’m part of what was Dublin, in the rare ould times.”
-- The Rare Ould Times,Dublin City Ramblers, Songwriters: Pete St. John
”Is beag an rud is buaine na an duine” - Irish Proverb
The Irish proverb above translates as “The smallest of things outlives the human being.”
From the moment I read that, and with that proverb echoing in my mind, I felt the pain and grief behind those words in this story. A beautifully written meditation on grief, loss and love, this is also a lovely story of healing, which is all the more soothing in this rural scenic environment of this remote village on Ireland’s west coast.
In December 2007, Martha Cassidy’s husband has died, and she has returned to his cottage in West Kerry, trying to piece together everything, hoping, somehow, to make sense of it all.
She sorts through his papers, reading through his notes, his letters, slowly coming to terms with their past, their loss, his infidelities, and the present. His death. And the memories she has of them, all together, in this place. And through all of this she comes to realize that she isn’t sure she ever knew who he really was.
As she begins to need more supplies, she must head into the town, and sees the changes all around. This is the Celtic Tiger era of rapid economic growth which came from foreign investment, and in this land where the charm of the old seems almost sacred, suddenly new and bigger and better and more luxurious, hotels with spas and oversized luxury homes were envisioned to replace old cottages by the sea. And when it becomes known she is there, an “investor” with big ideas of building right along her property – if only she will agree. She does her best to avoid him. She welcomes a man, a poet and musician who befriends her, and she comes to rely on him.
This is a quiet, contemplative little book, and a gently handled look at a life of a woman struggling to understand not only what she thinks or feels, but struggling with the past, and some weighty decisions. This is filled with emotion, but at the same time, the writing is so lovely, and there is such a sense of reverence for the world around her that this never felt, to me, overly sad. This has become a place where she has found so much peace about the past, and in doing so, slowly she finds herself learning how to say goodbye to her uncertainties, and to embrace the future.
Pub Date: 04 SEP 2018
Many thanks for the ARC provided by The Overlook Press
Cause Dublin keeps on changing, & nothing seems the same
The Pillar & the Met have gone, the Royal long since pulled down
As the grey unyielding concrete, makes a city of my town
“Fare thee well, Sweet Anna Liffey, I can no longer stay
& watch the new glass cages, that spring along the quay
My mind’s too full of memories, too old to hear new chimes
I’m part of what was Dublin, in the rare ould times.”
-- The Rare Ould Times,Dublin City Ramblers, Songwriters: Pete St. John
”Is beag an rud is buaine na an duine” - Irish Proverb
The Irish proverb above translates as “The smallest of things outlives the human being.”
From the moment I read that, and with that proverb echoing in my mind, I felt the pain and grief behind those words in this story. A beautifully written meditation on grief, loss and love, this is also a lovely story of healing, which is all the more soothing in this rural scenic environment of this remote village on Ireland’s west coast.
In December 2007, Martha Cassidy’s husband has died, and she has returned to his cottage in West Kerry, trying to piece together everything, hoping, somehow, to make sense of it all.
She sorts through his papers, reading through his notes, his letters, slowly coming to terms with their past, their loss, his infidelities, and the present. His death. And the memories she has of them, all together, in this place. And through all of this she comes to realize that she isn’t sure she ever knew who he really was.
As she begins to need more supplies, she must head into the town, and sees the changes all around. This is the Celtic Tiger era of rapid economic growth which came from foreign investment, and in this land where the charm of the old seems almost sacred, suddenly new and bigger and better and more luxurious, hotels with spas and oversized luxury homes were envisioned to replace old cottages by the sea. And when it becomes known she is there, an “investor” with big ideas of building right along her property – if only she will agree. She does her best to avoid him. She welcomes a man, a poet and musician who befriends her, and she comes to rely on him.
This is a quiet, contemplative little book, and a gently handled look at a life of a woman struggling to understand not only what she thinks or feels, but struggling with the past, and some weighty decisions. This is filled with emotion, but at the same time, the writing is so lovely, and there is such a sense of reverence for the world around her that this never felt, to me, overly sad. This has become a place where she has found so much peace about the past, and in doing so, slowly she finds herself learning how to say goodbye to her uncertainties, and to embrace the future.
Pub Date: 04 SEP 2018
Many thanks for the ARC provided by The Overlook Press
August 18, 2023
Reviewed for Books and livres
What a beautiful novel, what a beautiful writing style !
The last novel I read made me complain about being bored, about nothing happening, about it being a chore to read : this novel has almost no story, not much happens, everything is nuanced, painful subjects delicately approached and I loved every second of it !
This is a story about loss, about grief, first the loss of a husband, then another loss, not mentioned early, just a touch, here, there, a mourning so painful that the character is at first reluctant to mention it. Then she finally tells us what happened and we understand everything that was left in the grey.
Sue Hubbard writes splendidly, I was deeply touched by her story, by her characters, by the atmosphere she creates, the melancholy, the history of Ireland, the weather, everything. I could almost feel myself there, the smells, the wind, the beautiful surroundings. I loved reading about Martha, Colm's energy, Eugene's relationships (?) with people, Paddy's sense of belonging, different levels, different personalities, the modern Ireland, the old Ireland and those who want to make more of Ireland than a stereotype for tourists. And the splendid and wild Skellig isles, of course.
I was there, near Cahirciveen, the Dingle peninsula, the ring of Kerry, years ago ! I even remember the Puck fair at Killorglin. I loved visiting these places again, if only by reading. And I need to read more by this wonderful author whose style is almost poetic - but then, she's also a poet.
What a beautiful novel, what a beautiful writing style !
The last novel I read made me complain about being bored, about nothing happening, about it being a chore to read : this novel has almost no story, not much happens, everything is nuanced, painful subjects delicately approached and I loved every second of it !
This is a story about loss, about grief, first the loss of a husband, then another loss, not mentioned early, just a touch, here, there, a mourning so painful that the character is at first reluctant to mention it. Then she finally tells us what happened and we understand everything that was left in the grey.
Sue Hubbard writes splendidly, I was deeply touched by her story, by her characters, by the atmosphere she creates, the melancholy, the history of Ireland, the weather, everything. I could almost feel myself there, the smells, the wind, the beautiful surroundings. I loved reading about Martha, Colm's energy, Eugene's relationships (?) with people, Paddy's sense of belonging, different levels, different personalities, the modern Ireland, the old Ireland and those who want to make more of Ireland than a stereotype for tourists. And the splendid and wild Skellig isles, of course.
I was there, near Cahirciveen, the Dingle peninsula, the ring of Kerry, years ago ! I even remember the Puck fair at Killorglin. I loved visiting these places again, if only by reading. And I need to read more by this wonderful author whose style is almost poetic - but then, she's also a poet.
March 7, 2018
I resisted this book at first - and I think that's because, at its heart, it is a study of grief. Grief is something we don't want to face in our lives and we often steer clear of those who are grieving - as if we, ourselves, might be contaminated by their grief. Sue Hubbard's book is a dissection of grief - the loss not only of the narrator's husband but also a deeper grief. But it is also a story of healing - a healing that takes place in the Irish landscape. Sue Hubbard is also a poet and she describes the rugged landscape with grace. The narrator also makes contact with the people in the small community she temporarily lives in, and there are both enemies and friends there. Yet the story is bigger than this. It is also a story of change and loss within the community itself - how money has brought prosperity to some but has also distorted people's relationship with the land. Recommended.
August 22, 2023
“There are so few truly wild places left, places where the night is so dark you can see the constellations, places that look the same as they must have looked thousands of years ago. Everything’s changing. So much that’s authentic is being lost. I want to remember this place as it was . . .”
Rainsongs focuses on Martha, a late-middle-aged but still youthful teacher, whose half-Irish art-critic husband, Brendan, has died suddenly. A tragedy two decades previous had haunted the pair, yet their relationship endured for thirty years. The story opens in the weeks after Brendan’s death, in late December 2007, the darkest time of the year. (The novel will close in June 2009 on the longest day of the year). Just before New Year’s, Martha travels to her husband’s cottage in Kerry, where he spent summers as a boy and chose to write as an adult. She wants to settle things in Ireland: clear out Brendan’s books and belongings and possibly sell the place. That shouldn’t be hard; the country is still experiencing an economic boom. However, it’s the first time Martha has been back to the cottage since the summer of the accident that changed everything, and memories are awakened. Unexpectedly affected by the savage beauty of the place and sympathetic to those who are trying to maintain the old ways, she finds herself strangely conflicted. Her original plans may need to be altered.
While staying at the cottage, Martha meets three of Brendan’s former acquaintances. There’s a childhood friend, Eugene O’Riordan, once a high-powered corporate lawyer, who’s transitioned into property development. His latest scheme is to buy out the last of the farmers and landholders (including Martha) and have an upscale spa built. Paddy O’Connell, a bachelor hill farmer in his sixties (who returned from Dublin years before to help maintain his father’s farm), is another who’s being pressured, and possibly harassed, by Eugene. Finally, there’s Colm, a young singer and poet, whose talents Brendan had encouraged. Colm also returned home to Kerry—in his case, after being away at university in Dublin. His father had died and the young man wished to support his mother’s efforts to keep the farm. The fifth generation to work the land, Colm finds that economic conditions are making it nearly impossible for small farmers to survive. He’s also “torn between what he really wants to do [write] and loyalty to his mother.” Martha observes that though Colm is young, “there’s something wise about him, about the way he experiences the world.” During her time in the cottage that Brendan inherited from his father’s people, and through her interaction with the three men familiar with her husband, she learns about sides of her spouse that she never knew.
It’s evident that Hubbard carried out a lot of research before writing this book, and it sometimes shows more than it ought to. Colm holds forth rather a lot, sometimes pretentiously and pedantically, on Irish culture and literature, the effect of the economic boom on a country unused to a seemingly endless flow of money, and the Disneyfied version of Ireland versus the real place. Hubbard also presents this character’s long internal-monologue critiques of his fellow countrymen, who know how to be emigrants but are uncertain about how to welcome new immigrants from Eastern Europe; about the ugly side of modern Ireland: “flagrant wealth on the one hand, social deprivation on the other”; and about the irony of a country that “makes a big deal of the family” yet sees increasing numbers of “young parents out at gigs on long drinking binges,” leaving their young children neglected at home. While interesting enough to read, the commentary feels forced, clunky—superimposed on the story rather than organic to it.
The author has clearly drawn on her own experience—both as a poet and an art critic— to create two of the five main characters. For the most part, all five (if we include Brendan) are credible and interesting. I was a bit fearful that the novel was going to devolve into a reworking of the marriage plot. Hubbard certainly flirts with the “two-or-more-suitors;who-will-she-choose?” device. Both Eugene and Colm are attracted to Martha. The older man represents a certain material success, fuelled by psychological wounds and unthinking greed; the younger is intelligent and spiritually connected to the land.
Rainsongs is essentially concerned with a central character’s coming to grips with change and the transformative power of the natural world and older, slower ways. There really isn’t much of a plot here. At times, the novel is a little heavy on historical and descriptive detail: almost every shop in a nearby town is described, for example. However, I was generally impressed with Hubbard’s sensitive prose. There are some beautiful descriptions of the land and sea, the wind and mist and the birds that fly along the rugged Kerry coast in the vicinity of the Skellig islands, “a Christian refuge on . . . virgin crags.”
For this reason, I’ve rounded a solid 3.5 rating up to 4.
I preferred this novel over the author’s more recent Flatlands.
Rainsongs focuses on Martha, a late-middle-aged but still youthful teacher, whose half-Irish art-critic husband, Brendan, has died suddenly. A tragedy two decades previous had haunted the pair, yet their relationship endured for thirty years. The story opens in the weeks after Brendan’s death, in late December 2007, the darkest time of the year. (The novel will close in June 2009 on the longest day of the year). Just before New Year’s, Martha travels to her husband’s cottage in Kerry, where he spent summers as a boy and chose to write as an adult. She wants to settle things in Ireland: clear out Brendan’s books and belongings and possibly sell the place. That shouldn’t be hard; the country is still experiencing an economic boom. However, it’s the first time Martha has been back to the cottage since the summer of the accident that changed everything, and memories are awakened. Unexpectedly affected by the savage beauty of the place and sympathetic to those who are trying to maintain the old ways, she finds herself strangely conflicted. Her original plans may need to be altered.
While staying at the cottage, Martha meets three of Brendan’s former acquaintances. There’s a childhood friend, Eugene O’Riordan, once a high-powered corporate lawyer, who’s transitioned into property development. His latest scheme is to buy out the last of the farmers and landholders (including Martha) and have an upscale spa built. Paddy O’Connell, a bachelor hill farmer in his sixties (who returned from Dublin years before to help maintain his father’s farm), is another who’s being pressured, and possibly harassed, by Eugene. Finally, there’s Colm, a young singer and poet, whose talents Brendan had encouraged. Colm also returned home to Kerry—in his case, after being away at university in Dublin. His father had died and the young man wished to support his mother’s efforts to keep the farm. The fifth generation to work the land, Colm finds that economic conditions are making it nearly impossible for small farmers to survive. He’s also “torn between what he really wants to do [write] and loyalty to his mother.” Martha observes that though Colm is young, “there’s something wise about him, about the way he experiences the world.” During her time in the cottage that Brendan inherited from his father’s people, and through her interaction with the three men familiar with her husband, she learns about sides of her spouse that she never knew.
It’s evident that Hubbard carried out a lot of research before writing this book, and it sometimes shows more than it ought to. Colm holds forth rather a lot, sometimes pretentiously and pedantically, on Irish culture and literature, the effect of the economic boom on a country unused to a seemingly endless flow of money, and the Disneyfied version of Ireland versus the real place. Hubbard also presents this character’s long internal-monologue critiques of his fellow countrymen, who know how to be emigrants but are uncertain about how to welcome new immigrants from Eastern Europe; about the ugly side of modern Ireland: “flagrant wealth on the one hand, social deprivation on the other”; and about the irony of a country that “makes a big deal of the family” yet sees increasing numbers of “young parents out at gigs on long drinking binges,” leaving their young children neglected at home. While interesting enough to read, the commentary feels forced, clunky—superimposed on the story rather than organic to it.
The author has clearly drawn on her own experience—both as a poet and an art critic— to create two of the five main characters. For the most part, all five (if we include Brendan) are credible and interesting. I was a bit fearful that the novel was going to devolve into a reworking of the marriage plot. Hubbard certainly flirts with the “two-or-more-suitors;who-will-she-choose?” device. Both Eugene and Colm are attracted to Martha. The older man represents a certain material success, fuelled by psychological wounds and unthinking greed; the younger is intelligent and spiritually connected to the land.
Rainsongs is essentially concerned with a central character’s coming to grips with change and the transformative power of the natural world and older, slower ways. There really isn’t much of a plot here. At times, the novel is a little heavy on historical and descriptive detail: almost every shop in a nearby town is described, for example. However, I was generally impressed with Hubbard’s sensitive prose. There are some beautiful descriptions of the land and sea, the wind and mist and the birds that fly along the rugged Kerry coast in the vicinity of the Skellig islands, “a Christian refuge on . . . virgin crags.”
For this reason, I’ve rounded a solid 3.5 rating up to 4.
I preferred this novel over the author’s more recent Flatlands.
February 4, 2019
A wonderfully lyrical walk through the untamed south west coast of Ireland at the daily mercy of the wild unpredictable Atlantic ocean. Martha Cassidy has returned to the cottage that she and her deceased husband Brendan owned and spent many happy years. She is trying to finalize Brendan's affairs before deciding if she wishes to stay or sell the cottage. Through her eyes we meet unscrupulous property dealer Eugene Riordan eager to woo Martha as he is hoping to acquire her property for his future development plans.
Sue Hubbard uses the landscape as a descriptive backdrop to her flowing narrative style...."This is the end of the world with nothing between her and America except the cold sea"....."She's not religious. For her death is the end A soundless dark beyond time and sleep"....."Our lives are so hectic that not to be busy is considered a modern vice, evidence of inadequacy, proof that we're no longer important."......"to find a landscape to fit our dreams and disappointments. When there's nothing left there's still the ocean and the sky"....."Were they too, running from intimacy in order to avoid love's vulnerability"......There are a number of surprises that unfold as we delve deeper into Martha's regretful past, and a new acquaintance that she unexpectedly meets during her stay. Will she decide to remain or return to her old life in London. In the quiet moments of this breathtakingly beautiful location old memories return and with them a great sadness...A very enjoyable read that brought the beautiful location of Southern Ireland to life. Highly recommended.
Sue Hubbard uses the landscape as a descriptive backdrop to her flowing narrative style...."This is the end of the world with nothing between her and America except the cold sea"....."She's not religious. For her death is the end A soundless dark beyond time and sleep"....."Our lives are so hectic that not to be busy is considered a modern vice, evidence of inadequacy, proof that we're no longer important."......"to find a landscape to fit our dreams and disappointments. When there's nothing left there's still the ocean and the sky"....."Were they too, running from intimacy in order to avoid love's vulnerability"......There are a number of surprises that unfold as we delve deeper into Martha's regretful past, and a new acquaintance that she unexpectedly meets during her stay. Will she decide to remain or return to her old life in London. In the quiet moments of this breathtakingly beautiful location old memories return and with them a great sadness...A very enjoyable read that brought the beautiful location of Southern Ireland to life. Highly recommended.
March 26, 2018
This is truly one of the most beautifully written books I’ve ever read. Every few pages I just stopped to read passages out loud and marvel how beautiful they sounded. The story is one of sadness, love and redemption all set in a tiny oceanside town in Ireland. This story is a walk with grief and a visual masterpiece that I believe will provide you with a sense of peace.
October 9, 2020
4.5 stars. This book needs to be read slowly to fully appreciate the poetic descriptions of life on the west coast of Ireland. It also needs to be read slowly to fully appreciate the main character (Martha) and her travel through grief. There was one section where Sue Hubbard spent several short chapters describing a farmer's life (Paddy), and at first I kept thinking "Oh get on with the story." Then I took a breath and thought "This is part of the story. This sets the tone, and adds depth." In describing the book, I keep saying "it's a quiet book."
Hubbard writes with the rhythm and poetry of an Irish author (think Sebastian Barry or Anne Griffin), and I had to keep reminding myself that she's not Irish.
Hubbard writes with the rhythm and poetry of an Irish author (think Sebastian Barry or Anne Griffin), and I had to keep reminding myself that she's not Irish.
March 23, 2025
10 stelle per il mio apprezzamento.
September 30, 2018
Rainsongs by Sue Hubbard is a highly recommended, beautifully written novel about loss, love, healing, and life.
After the death of her husband in December 2007, Martha Cassidy has returned to her husband's remote cottage where he went to write. It is near a tiny, remote village on the west coast of Ireland in County Kerry. Off the coast are the Skelligs, a group of barren islands occupied by monks in 520 AD. Once at the cottage, Martha sorts through her husband's belongings and reflects on her husband, his life, his infidelities, but she also finally grieves the loss twenty years earlier of 10 year-old Bruno, her only child and that he never got to take a boat trip to the Skelligs.
In this windswept headland, there are other contemporary outside forces that insert themselves into Martha's consciousness. A successful developer, Eugene Riordan, wants to buy up all the farmland on the coast and build a spa resort. Older local hill farmer Paddy O'Connell quietly refuses to sell to him and ends up injured under mysterious circumstances. Riordan also wants part of Martha's land but she manages to put him off. Martha also befriends local musician and poet, Colm, who doesn't want to lose the rural area's way of life.
The descriptions of the landscape and setting are exquisitely crafted and certainly show Hubbard's poetic turn of phrase. Beyond Martha, the beautiful, rugged landscape is truly a main character. The loss of a way of life and rural setting may have to be mourned if the farmland is sold and the development changes the area and the beauty of the remote area. The plot is quite simple and quiet.
Martha is a clear-headed woman dealing with more than a few memories, good and bad, and grieving her losses and what could have been. This is a lamentation of the loss of a husband and son. Martha must sort through memories as she sorts through things, and she must negotiate with her grief and feelings to set a course to her future. She is a well-developed character and we know her inner thoughts and musings as she does what she needs to do at the cottage in order to go on with her life. The other characters, beyond the landscape, are all more caricatures for several archetypal characters.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of The Overlook Press.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2018/0...
After the death of her husband in December 2007, Martha Cassidy has returned to her husband's remote cottage where he went to write. It is near a tiny, remote village on the west coast of Ireland in County Kerry. Off the coast are the Skelligs, a group of barren islands occupied by monks in 520 AD. Once at the cottage, Martha sorts through her husband's belongings and reflects on her husband, his life, his infidelities, but she also finally grieves the loss twenty years earlier of 10 year-old Bruno, her only child and that he never got to take a boat trip to the Skelligs.
In this windswept headland, there are other contemporary outside forces that insert themselves into Martha's consciousness. A successful developer, Eugene Riordan, wants to buy up all the farmland on the coast and build a spa resort. Older local hill farmer Paddy O'Connell quietly refuses to sell to him and ends up injured under mysterious circumstances. Riordan also wants part of Martha's land but she manages to put him off. Martha also befriends local musician and poet, Colm, who doesn't want to lose the rural area's way of life.
The descriptions of the landscape and setting are exquisitely crafted and certainly show Hubbard's poetic turn of phrase. Beyond Martha, the beautiful, rugged landscape is truly a main character. The loss of a way of life and rural setting may have to be mourned if the farmland is sold and the development changes the area and the beauty of the remote area. The plot is quite simple and quiet.
Martha is a clear-headed woman dealing with more than a few memories, good and bad, and grieving her losses and what could have been. This is a lamentation of the loss of a husband and son. Martha must sort through memories as she sorts through things, and she must negotiate with her grief and feelings to set a course to her future. She is a well-developed character and we know her inner thoughts and musings as she does what she needs to do at the cottage in order to go on with her life. The other characters, beyond the landscape, are all more caricatures for several archetypal characters.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of The Overlook Press.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2018/0...
February 19, 2019
A story of grief - Martha’s grief for her family is central, but we also have a grieving for the old way of life in Ireland in the midst of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ years of boom and bust. The latter aspect is characterised by the elderly hill farmer, Paddy, slogging on at his farm and, on the other hand, by prosperous, avaricious, land developer Eugene. I found these characters and the plot generally rather too familiar and unengaging, verging on a rant. The book was redeemed for me by the poetic quality of its descriptions, particularly of the rugged, unforgiving landscape at the edge of Ireland and the spectacular Skellig islands.
I can’t think of any better section to quote as an example of her writing than the short poem, attributed to one of the younger characters and in reality published by Sue Hubbard in one of her collections:
how love must be a surrender,
a letting go of the dark grieving
lodged in marrow bone,
and how life is only this moment
at midnight; a guttering candle
and a terrible wind
howling across a strait of wide water
like something lost in the anthracite dark,
beating its way home in the battering rain.
I’d expected to like this novel more than I did and wonder if her poetry would be more my thing.
With thanks to Prelude Books/Duckworth via NetGalley for the opportunity of an ARC.
I can’t think of any better section to quote as an example of her writing than the short poem, attributed to one of the younger characters and in reality published by Sue Hubbard in one of her collections:
how love must be a surrender,
a letting go of the dark grieving
lodged in marrow bone,
and how life is only this moment
at midnight; a guttering candle
and a terrible wind
howling across a strait of wide water
like something lost in the anthracite dark,
beating its way home in the battering rain.
I’d expected to like this novel more than I did and wonder if her poetry would be more my thing.
With thanks to Prelude Books/Duckworth via NetGalley for the opportunity of an ARC.
April 19, 2025
Io adoro le storie di rinascita, quando una vita affranta vede aprirsi nuove strade e s'invola dalle ceneri di una perdita o di un dolore.
Qui c'è una bellissima storia di rigenerazione e se tutto ciò succede sullo sfondo di un'Irlanda sia contemporanea che fuori dal contesto attuale, con il suo verde, l'oceano, i cottage battuti dal vento, il fuoco di torba e accenni ai suoi grandi poeti il mio amore per un libro diventa totale.
Vogliamo aggiungere una profondità di pensiero che sottende una scrittura semplice, ma mai mai banale?
"Forse la solitudine è semplicemente l'abisso tra il nostro mondo interiore e il modo in cui sembra che gli altri ci conoscano."
Insomma una perla. In questo periodo vorrei solo libri come questo.
Qui c'è una bellissima storia di rigenerazione e se tutto ciò succede sullo sfondo di un'Irlanda sia contemporanea che fuori dal contesto attuale, con il suo verde, l'oceano, i cottage battuti dal vento, il fuoco di torba e accenni ai suoi grandi poeti il mio amore per un libro diventa totale.
Vogliamo aggiungere una profondità di pensiero che sottende una scrittura semplice, ma mai mai banale?
"Forse la solitudine è semplicemente l'abisso tra il nostro mondo interiore e il modo in cui sembra che gli altri ci conoscano."
Insomma una perla. In questo periodo vorrei solo libri come questo.
February 13, 2019
I loved Sue Hubbard's Rothko's Red and Depth of Field so I was delighted to receive a copy of her latest novel Rainsongs to review. This beautifully written story is set at the height of the Irish financial boom and deals with grief and the healing of it.
Newly widowed Martha Cassidy visits her husband's home in a deserted village on the west coast of Ireland after a long absence. While sorting through Brendan's possessions and papers Martha recalls family holidays spent with him and their young son, whose death she still mourns. As the unpredictable weather rages Martha has to decide what to do with Brendan's cottage and land which Eugene Riordan, a local developer, eyes covetously alongside other small farms in the area. He wants to build a luxury spa overlooking the dramatic Skelligs which so fascinated Matha's son.
Martha builds a close relationship with Colm, a young musician and poet, who makes her think of the son she lost. I found the culmination of this relationship a distraction and unnecessary. Also, the ending was rather rushed which is why I reluctantly have given 4* instead of 5*. Nevertheless, I do recommend this to readers who love stories about contemporary Ireland.
Rainsongs is so atmospheric that this reader feels she is accompanying Martha every step she takes. Many thanks to NetGalley and Duckworth for the opportunity to read and review it.
Newly widowed Martha Cassidy visits her husband's home in a deserted village on the west coast of Ireland after a long absence. While sorting through Brendan's possessions and papers Martha recalls family holidays spent with him and their young son, whose death she still mourns. As the unpredictable weather rages Martha has to decide what to do with Brendan's cottage and land which Eugene Riordan, a local developer, eyes covetously alongside other small farms in the area. He wants to build a luxury spa overlooking the dramatic Skelligs which so fascinated Matha's son.
Martha builds a close relationship with Colm, a young musician and poet, who makes her think of the son she lost. I found the culmination of this relationship a distraction and unnecessary. Also, the ending was rather rushed which is why I reluctantly have given 4* instead of 5*. Nevertheless, I do recommend this to readers who love stories about contemporary Ireland.
Rainsongs is so atmospheric that this reader feels she is accompanying Martha every step she takes. Many thanks to NetGalley and Duckworth for the opportunity to read and review it.
February 5, 2019
There are books you read for the story and then there are books to be read for the beauty of the writing that tells the story in a way that moves you heart and soul. Rainsongs is a study of grief, and loss of time and the realization that comes at midlife that there's less time ahead than there is behind you. The rugged landscape of the west coast of Ireland can be felt throughout and it stirs inside each of its characters in different ways. A beautiful story.
January 11, 2019
A quiet, grieving, foggy feel to the entire book as a woman revisits an old family cottage to sort her husbands things after his death. Lovely landscape descriptions and interesting characters from traditional farmers to wealthy developers and a young Irish poet. All in all, a lovely little visit to Ireland - now off to Botswana with Alexander McCall Smith.
February 12, 2019
This book is amazing and it's set where I live, I loved the story and the characters, and the mentions of my hometown of caherciveen! No one ever writes about caherciveen and Bally! it was a joy to read this book and I read it in one sitting
March 12, 2019
A grieving woman returns to rural Kerry. Beautiful prose with a very intriguing history of the Skelligs
December 10, 2018
From the beginning Rainsongs brings echoes of the past to a remote and beautiful corner of Ireland, the west coast shoreline of Kerry with its enigmatic rocks out to sea, the Skelligs, monastic refuge in the Dark Ages, and enduring symbol of the book’s sense of loneliness and separation. This novel is beautifully written, and gives a real sense of time and place. As it develops, the resonances and connections between place and people begin to reveal themselves. The immediate sense of loss and grief that Martha feels is compounded by a reinforcement of her life-long connections to her son, of which the Skelligs form a visceral symbol. Flashbacks to long ago summers and happier times in other places deepen a sense of ongoing grief and a need to exorcise the ghosts through clearing away the physical reminders of family in her remote hillside cottage. The sorting through is a voyage of discovery and gradual understanding. How well do we really know the people we know, or thought we knew, indeed may have lived with all our lives? When our secrets are laid bare at the end of our time, who will be there to discover them? And throughout that sense of being alone yet having to carry on: “Perhaps loneliness is simply the gulf between our inner world and how others appear to experience us”.
The characters in the book reflect the stark rainswept, windswept Atlantic coastline. Paddy O’Connell who tried to leave long ago but was drawn back into the solitude of his lonely family farm. The tug of the land and its creatures. Even Eugene Riordan, with his life of well-endowed excess and drive for change in a resistant rural community, is a lonely, isolated character, perhaps only really happy on a windy beach with his dogs? Young musician Colm finds refuge in his poetry which begins to fill in the spaces missing from Martha‘s experience: what it is like to be a local in this traditional and isolated community, what it means to be a neighbour, what it means to have a sense of the poetry and literature that has flowed through the generations from the land and the people in Ireland since those Dark Ages, the traditions, the habits, the sense of belonging, which the new money and the ephemeral prosperity of the so called Celtic Tiger period of the late 2000s will seek to change, in the process bringing ruin to many.
This book is very lyrical and evocative; it is slow paced but entrancing; the language is poetic and reflective; it took me along with it effortlessly; it deals with the distances between people and enduring connections to what has happened in the past; all set against a dramatic and magical landscape where you can just believe that experiencing a momentary shaft of sunlight on the rocks of a storm tossed day might bring greater understanding.
The characters in the book reflect the stark rainswept, windswept Atlantic coastline. Paddy O’Connell who tried to leave long ago but was drawn back into the solitude of his lonely family farm. The tug of the land and its creatures. Even Eugene Riordan, with his life of well-endowed excess and drive for change in a resistant rural community, is a lonely, isolated character, perhaps only really happy on a windy beach with his dogs? Young musician Colm finds refuge in his poetry which begins to fill in the spaces missing from Martha‘s experience: what it is like to be a local in this traditional and isolated community, what it means to be a neighbour, what it means to have a sense of the poetry and literature that has flowed through the generations from the land and the people in Ireland since those Dark Ages, the traditions, the habits, the sense of belonging, which the new money and the ephemeral prosperity of the so called Celtic Tiger period of the late 2000s will seek to change, in the process bringing ruin to many.
This book is very lyrical and evocative; it is slow paced but entrancing; the language is poetic and reflective; it took me along with it effortlessly; it deals with the distances between people and enduring connections to what has happened in the past; all set against a dramatic and magical landscape where you can just believe that experiencing a momentary shaft of sunlight on the rocks of a storm tossed day might bring greater understanding.
January 11, 2019
Beautifully evocative of Western Ireland landscape, this book explores loss and the tension between the Ireland of many centuries and the building boom of the 90s and early 2000s. Beautifully written you understand why the authors also a fine poet. I don't think I've read a novel that has such a strong sense of place. I particularly enjoyed this since we had visited this area and kept looking up the specific towns and places mentioned a couple of which I've been to. It also explores what is the "real Ireland"
February 26, 2019
Ireland’s craggy Skellig Islands provide a scenic and spiritual backdrop for this novel about rebuilding a life. Martha Cassidy comes to sort out her husband’s old writing cabin at the end of the Iveragh Peninsula after his sudden death and finds strange comfort in the isolated area. She is an interesting amalgam of grief and strength. I also enjoyed the portrait of Ireland, poised between ancient history and the real estate bubble washing away much of the past.
October 3, 2019
Beautifully written short story of Martha and how she finds purpose after the death of her husband and finally comes to terms with the loss of her son. Mainly set on the West coast of Ireland during the Celtic Tiger times, it really evokes a sense of time and place and made me want to visit in the hope that things have not changed too much. Loved her relationships with the other characters and her lost loves.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 17, 2018
a quiet, reflective novel about grief, not only for lost loved-ones, but for the loss of wild spaces in our ever changing world
Women on the edge of the ocean: All Rivers Run Free & Rainsongs - annethology http://annegoodwin.weebly.com/1/post/...
Women on the edge of the ocean: All Rivers Run Free & Rainsongs - annethology http://annegoodwin.weebly.com/1/post/...
June 16, 2019
A beautiful, gentle read set in a rugged part of Ireland overlooking the Skelligs. It starts off a book about grief and memory but becomes much more. I read a lot of Irish history etc and pleased to see my favourite book about the Skelligs, Sun dancing by Geoffrey Moorhouse in the brief bibliography. Well worth a read.
June 21, 2019
Loved this beautifully written book, very different and original.
The descriptions are fabulous, I could easily picture myself being in the cottage and feeling the rain and mist.
A story of discovering someone you thought you knew, had a whole side to them you knew nothing about. A story of how one woman deals with bereavement.
Couldn't put it down
The descriptions are fabulous, I could easily picture myself being in the cottage and feeling the rain and mist.
A story of discovering someone you thought you knew, had a whole side to them you knew nothing about. A story of how one woman deals with bereavement.
Couldn't put it down
February 14, 2019
One of the best books I've ever read it's a soul searching book that leaves you wanting more the skellig islands are quite magical there history of days gone by I really can't praise this wonderful book enough it deserves more ******than I can give.
June 15, 2019
A beautifully written atmospheric book. Sue Hubbard’s descriptions of the wild Irish coast made me feel I was there.
January 22, 2022
2.5
Too sad for me, at this time. I picked it up and put it aside, then could not finish. Beautiful setting, but too much sorrow.
Too sad for me, at this time. I picked it up and put it aside, then could not finish. Beautiful setting, but too much sorrow.
November 6, 2022
Opening with a preface set in 520 AD (why that date?!) when the author has the first Skellig monks row out to what will later be know as Sceilg Mhichíl, it is of immediate interest to me (as a former OPW guide on the island).
The protagonist, Martha is newly widowed and also lost her 10-year old son Bruno 20 years previously. She has come to a little cottage on Bolus Head she just inherited from her husband Brendan, ostensibly to put his papers in order. He was an art critic and gallerist and somebody might want his papers. But she is asking herself for the real reason for coming. This is where she, Brendan and Bruno spent their last holidays together 20 years ago, before Bruno died back in England in a canoeing accident. She is freshly grieving her husband, as also grieving the distance that had been there between them since Bruno’s death. She was not able to lean on him, withdrawing instead, and he had a strung-out affair with a colleague which nearly wrecked their marriage.
She thinks of all this as she encounters things of his in the cottage, as she meets Brendan’s erstwhile boyhood friend, the now-prosperous and shark-like property developer Eugene, as she gets to know Colm, the musician and poet, as she lies alone in bed listening to the wind and rain. Some of this is made of set pieces that smack of lectures: Colm delivers a diatribe on greedy Celtic Tiger Ireland that had too many stories told about itself and doesn’t know anymore what it is. I don’t criticise what he says – he’s probably bang-on – but even given the garrulousness of some people it is too long and well-researched. This is the writer “showing but not telling”, ie it’s what she found out and thinks about the Irish and puts it in the young man’s mouth.
But despite this it is a beautiful, introspective, and restful book. The sadness of losing Bruno is told in stages. There is a moving scene when Brendan and Martha are imagined together in the house -months after his death- in front of the 6-o’clock news, and without warning he "took her in his arms and, without a workd, buried his head in her neck, his whole body convulsed with dry sobs. She stood there holding him, then took his hand and gently led him upstairs, where she helped him onto bed and covered him with the duvet, before lying down beside him. They lay like that, fully dressed, clinging to each other as the light faded and the room gradually grew cold.” She finds it hardest that now, she has nobody left who knows of her grief for Bruno, while adding the loss of Brendan. -The book disappoints me a little – why I don’t understand – when Martha and Colm have a short affair – short because she decides to evade Eugene’s efforts, give the house to Colm to write in, and return to England. Why would the love scene between them – hot quick and steamy- annoy me? Because these things do. Still, overall I liked the book very much, and despite the sermonising it’s very sensitive where southwest Uíbh Rathach is concerned.
The protagonist, Martha is newly widowed and also lost her 10-year old son Bruno 20 years previously. She has come to a little cottage on Bolus Head she just inherited from her husband Brendan, ostensibly to put his papers in order. He was an art critic and gallerist and somebody might want his papers. But she is asking herself for the real reason for coming. This is where she, Brendan and Bruno spent their last holidays together 20 years ago, before Bruno died back in England in a canoeing accident. She is freshly grieving her husband, as also grieving the distance that had been there between them since Bruno’s death. She was not able to lean on him, withdrawing instead, and he had a strung-out affair with a colleague which nearly wrecked their marriage.
She thinks of all this as she encounters things of his in the cottage, as she meets Brendan’s erstwhile boyhood friend, the now-prosperous and shark-like property developer Eugene, as she gets to know Colm, the musician and poet, as she lies alone in bed listening to the wind and rain. Some of this is made of set pieces that smack of lectures: Colm delivers a diatribe on greedy Celtic Tiger Ireland that had too many stories told about itself and doesn’t know anymore what it is. I don’t criticise what he says – he’s probably bang-on – but even given the garrulousness of some people it is too long and well-researched. This is the writer “showing but not telling”, ie it’s what she found out and thinks about the Irish and puts it in the young man’s mouth.
But despite this it is a beautiful, introspective, and restful book. The sadness of losing Bruno is told in stages. There is a moving scene when Brendan and Martha are imagined together in the house -months after his death- in front of the 6-o’clock news, and without warning he "took her in his arms and, without a workd, buried his head in her neck, his whole body convulsed with dry sobs. She stood there holding him, then took his hand and gently led him upstairs, where she helped him onto bed and covered him with the duvet, before lying down beside him. They lay like that, fully dressed, clinging to each other as the light faded and the room gradually grew cold.” She finds it hardest that now, she has nobody left who knows of her grief for Bruno, while adding the loss of Brendan. -The book disappoints me a little – why I don’t understand – when Martha and Colm have a short affair – short because she decides to evade Eugene’s efforts, give the house to Colm to write in, and return to England. Why would the love scene between them – hot quick and steamy- annoy me? Because these things do. Still, overall I liked the book very much, and despite the sermonising it’s very sensitive where southwest Uíbh Rathach is concerned.
March 12, 2021
Sue Hubbard’s wistful, lyrical novel Rainsongs describes the difficult passage toward healing of recently widowed Martha Cassidy. Martha has been devastated by the unexpected loss of her husband Brendan, an art critic and author, who died suddenly of a heart attack. Not given to excessive brooding or emotional theatrics, and fond of her privacy, Martha is quietly consumed by her grief. She and Brendan were married for thirty years. Without the steady presence of her husband she does maintain an even keel, but senses that below the surface she is unraveling. Part of her healing process involves a return to County Kerry on the west coast of Ireland, to the windswept cottage that in the early years of her marriage had been a family holiday spot, but latterly was used solely by Brendan as a writing sanctuary. Martha has not been there for twenty years, not since the accident that claimed the life of Bruno, the couple’s only son. Martha’s return to the cottage shortly after Christmas 2007—ostensibly a chance to sort Brendan’s books and papers and to consider her future—places her squarely and reluctantly in the midst of a land dispute. Local developer Eugene Riordan, a childhood friend of Brendan’s, has his eye on the rocky headland that juts into the sea for a fancy spa that will attract well-heeled Europeans and provide permanent employment for a few lucky locals. The building team will have to cross Martha’s property to access the construction site, and he pressures Martha to allow this. Most of the residents are weary of the isolation and harsh weather and are eager to sell up. The one holdout is Paddy O’Connell, who, in his sixties, stubbornly, stoically, defiantly, insists on maintaining a herd of cattle and working his farm’s stony earth as he has done all his life. Another person Martha encounters soon after her arrival is poet and musician Colm Nolan, son of the caretaker whom Brendan engaged to keep an eye on the cottage in his absence. Colm, about half Martha’s age, comes and goes at odd times, keeping Martha supplied with peat and other essentials, and she quickly finds herself warming to his friendly banter and charming, earthy intelligence. At the same time Martha is repelled by Eugene’s arrogance and only endures his company because of the connection with Brendan. Where the development is concerned, Martha’s sympathies lie with Paddy: she is horrified by Eugene’s plans to despoil the headland’s rough beauty simply to make money. But Martha’s state of mourning also leaves her vulnerable, and after agreeing to read Colm’s poetry manuscript the two become intimate. Sue Hubbard’s emotionally complex narrative explores the tensions between past and present, old and new. Like the land and people around her—perhaps like all of Ireland—Martha must decide: will she live on as a shadow of her former self, fixated on the past, stymied by her losses, or will she move forward and invent herself anew? Martha’s efforts to uncover the future that awaits her are hindered by memories of her husband and guilt over Bruno, but eventually she realizes that she can honour the past while at the same time not let it hold her back. The struggle she wages to attain this level of peace with herself is moving and achingly real.
April 4, 2025
||: Rainsong
By Sue Hubbard
Chapter 1 Page 155
Monday
3/5
🌟🌟🌟
{ Brendan knew her when she was young. At her best. They'd grown older. He'd watch her body change over the years, with the birth of their child and the onslaught of middle age, as she had his. After the affair with Sophie it was a long time before they were intimate again. Then in Rome, in that big mahogany bed, he lent over and kissed her with a tenderness that always made her open up to him. For a mad moment she wonders if she might have made a silly mistake and left him in London and that, even now, he's on his way to the Ferry to join her at the cottage. All his things are here. Maybe she is throwing everything out only for him to turn up and be furious with for tampering. }
This book follows Martha and her struggle to deal with not only a loved one's death but also to face her fears that she has long since kept inside. She also deals with her feelings in a way that sometimes isn't healthy but going back to the place she was last happy is the medicine she didn't know she needed.
It is raw and beautiful, and the attention to detail is breathtaking. It almost made me feel the grass under my feet and the coldness in the cottage as the wind blew the creaking wood, the sound of a tractor and maybe the voice of a fox as it was stunned in his path to find a place to hide from the bite in the air.
My heart bleeds for Martha and the way in which the author chose to write i'm so unfamilar with, there were no speech marks, as if Martha had written this down from memory, as a diary or a keepsake, of the time she went back, to relive the things she saw, touched and felt. It was a moving ocean that dipped up and down but slowly and fluidly but heart-wrenching all the same..
This is nothing short of a masterpiece straight from a poet's mind and into the reader's heart.
By Sue Hubbard
Chapter 1 Page 155
Monday
3/5
🌟🌟🌟
{ Brendan knew her when she was young. At her best. They'd grown older. He'd watch her body change over the years, with the birth of their child and the onslaught of middle age, as she had his. After the affair with Sophie it was a long time before they were intimate again. Then in Rome, in that big mahogany bed, he lent over and kissed her with a tenderness that always made her open up to him. For a mad moment she wonders if she might have made a silly mistake and left him in London and that, even now, he's on his way to the Ferry to join her at the cottage. All his things are here. Maybe she is throwing everything out only for him to turn up and be furious with for tampering. }
This book follows Martha and her struggle to deal with not only a loved one's death but also to face her fears that she has long since kept inside. She also deals with her feelings in a way that sometimes isn't healthy but going back to the place she was last happy is the medicine she didn't know she needed.
It is raw and beautiful, and the attention to detail is breathtaking. It almost made me feel the grass under my feet and the coldness in the cottage as the wind blew the creaking wood, the sound of a tractor and maybe the voice of a fox as it was stunned in his path to find a place to hide from the bite in the air.
My heart bleeds for Martha and the way in which the author chose to write i'm so unfamilar with, there were no speech marks, as if Martha had written this down from memory, as a diary or a keepsake, of the time she went back, to relive the things she saw, touched and felt. It was a moving ocean that dipped up and down but slowly and fluidly but heart-wrenching all the same..
This is nothing short of a masterpiece straight from a poet's mind and into the reader's heart.
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