Marian Keyes is back, with a heart-rending story of bereavement

In Marian Keyes’s new novel, gentrification in rural Ireland plays a key role – Alamy/Ian Dagnall

We first met the Walshes, a boisterous Dublin-based family – mother, father, five squabbling sisters – in 1995, in Marian Keyes’s debut novel Watermelon. That book centred on the oldest sibling, Claire, but each has since had their turn in the spotlight – most notably the recovering alcoholic Rachel, a powerful avatar for the Irish author’s own battle with addiction.

The neat trick of this rotating group of protagonists is that every sister thinks the others have it sorted, while the reader knows that they’re all hiding a host of insecurities. That’s central to Keyes’s empathetic world view, and her approach to human frailty. Her characters’ heroism resides not in perfection, but in their ability to admit their failings and try again.

Keyes’s latest warm-hearted and deftly plotted page-turner, My Favourite Mistake, rejoins the second-youngest Walsh, Anna. She decides to blow up her glossy New York life: quit her high-flying beauty PR job, end her relationship, and move back to Ireland – to the dismay of her family, who enjoyed her steady stream of cosmetics freebies.

Anna comes to the aid of her friend Brigit, whose plans to set up a luxury wellness retreat in the (fictional) tiny coastal town of Maumtully are facing strong opposition. Rumours abound that this arrival won’t employ residents or benefit local businesses, but will block off the beach and disrupt neighbouring farms. When vandalisation of the work site escalates to violent sabotage, Anna must root out the culprit.

There are, in fact, two opportunities for us to play detective. As well as this gentrification plotline, we must puzzle out the complicated history between Anna and her cagey colleague Joey, and how that relates to her estrangement with childhood best-friend Jacqui. Keyes gives this friendship, and its traumatic loss, the same weight as any romantic entanglement.

Marian Keyes’s new novel returns to the Walsh family – Michael Joseph

She also weaves in contemporary predicaments: Anna’s life-change follows a stressful pandemic “bubbling” with her partner Angelo; aged 48, she has also been diagnosed with perimenopause, although a patronising male doctor in Dublin refuses to prescribe HRT, lecturing her that “in the Western world, we over-medicalise what is a perfectly natural part of a woman’s life.” When she finally gets a prescription, her local pharmacy doesn’t have the medication in stock. Anna even gives an impassioned speech about the impossibility of being a woman – “You’re too serious, too short, too confident, too flat-chested, too ambitious, too repressed…” – which reminded me of America Ferrera’s celebrated Barbie monologue.

Although she has written about everything from clinical depression to abortion rights, Keyes seldom gets enough credit for tackling deeper issues. My Favourite Mistake contains a heartrending portrait of bereavement, no less powerful for its juxtaposition with the requisite swooning romance and a teeming cast of colourful supporting characters.

Throughout, her idiosyncratic wit is a tonic. A touchy-feely man is labelled “a feathery stroker”, while the now ostentatiously wealthy Joey is mocked as “a go-boy”. But there’s also a sincere celebration of kindness: via family and friends, and this small community that takes Anna to its heart. That, I think, is why Keyes’s novels continue to be so loved.

My Favourite Mistake is published by Michael Joseph at £22. To order your copy for £18.99, call 0808 196 6794 or visit Telegraph Books

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