"The Weight of Love" by Hilary Fannin is the June selection for IrishCentral's Book Club
Each month, we will pick a new Irish book or a great book by an Irish author and celebrate the amazing ability of the Irish to tell a good story for IrishCentral's Book Club.
Throughout June, we'll be reading "The Weight of Love," the debut novel from Irish Times award-winning columnist and Dublin native Hilary Fannin.
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Synopsis of “The Weight of Love” by Hilary Fannin
London, 1996. Robin and Ruth meet in the staff room of an East London school. Robin, desperate for a real connection, instantly falls in love. Ruth, recently bereaved and fragile, is tentative.
When Robin introduces Ruth to his childhood friend, Joseph, a tortured and talented artist, their attraction is instant. Powerless, Robin watches on as the girl he loves and his best friend begin a passionate and turbulent affair.
Dublin 2017. Robin and Ruth are married and have a son, Sid, who is about to emigrate to Berlin. Theirs is a marriage haunted by the ghost of Joseph and as the distance between them grows, Robin makes a choice that could have potentially devastating consequences.
The Weight of Love is a beautiful exploration of how we manage life when the notes and beats of our existence, so carefully arranged, begin to slip off the stave. An intimate and moving account of the intricacies of marriage and the myriad ways in which we can love and be loved.
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Reviews for "The Weight of Love"
"This is heartache for grown ups. The Weight of Love pulls you in and does not let go." - Anne Enright
"Beautiful and painful, exquisitely written, shot through with nostalgia for our earlier selves." - Marian Keyes
"Incredibly beautiful, aching; it feels like it’s being whispered to me. The story unfolds so naturally in prose at once delicate and powerful, hypnotic. Gorgeous." - Donal Ryan
“Without resorting to cliche or stereotypes, Fannin has tackled a universal tale of heartbreak and made it feel entirely personal to her triumvirate of lost lovers” says @wordsofhelen of The Weight of Love by @HilaryFannin. I’d second this. I loved it too https://t.co/tGlvBv5ule
— Martin Doyle (@MartinDoyleIT) March 24, 2020
If you want to continue the emotional gut-punching after watching your episodes of Normal People, @HilaryFannin’s novel The Weight Of Love brings the intense drama to a middle-aged couple and will also leave you with lots of deep feelings (it’s brilliant)
— Aoife Barry (@sweetoblivion26) April 29, 2020
Our seventh review is of #TheWeightofLove by @HilaryFannin published by Transworld Ireland. Available to buy now in all good bookshops! #SupportIrishWriters@PenguinIEBooks pic.twitter.com/BDIl6rLkuY
— Dublin UNESCO (@DublinCityofLit) May 28, 2020
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About Hilary Fannin
Hilary Fannin is an award-winning playwright and newspaper columnist. Born in Dublin, where she still lives, she was writer in association at the Abbey Theatre in its centenary year. Her plays, including Mackerel Sky, Doldrum Bay, Famished Castle, and an adaptation of Racine’s Phaedra, have been performed in Ireland, London, Europe, and North America.
Fannin writes a weekly column for the Irish Times and was awarded Irish Columnist of the Year in 2019.
Her memoir, Hopscotch, was published to critical acclaim in 2015. The Weight of Love is her first novel.
You can follow Hilary Fannin on Twitter here.
(Synopsis and Hilary Fannin biography information provided by Penguin Random House.)
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