THE LACE MAKERS OF GLENMARA
Heather Barbieri
Harper
Fiction
ISBN: 9780061721557
It’s been said that a journey of a million miles starts with one step. For Kate Robinson, her journey begins with a trans-Atlantic flight over 5,000 miles to Ireland, in the hopes of restoring her spirit and finding inspiration. In the past year, Kate has been dealing with the death of her mother, a crushing breakup with her boyfriend, and to add insult to many injuries, the failure of her fashion line. She learned about sewing from her mother, who taught her “you can always start over….all it takes is new thread.” In an effort to reboot her life, she travels to Ireland, a trip she planned to take with her late mother before the cancer took over. Hopefully, a new environment can help her find the inspiration she’s been craving.
While traveling aimlessly along the western coast, Kate happens upon the tiny coastal hamlet of Glenmara, a town whose residents need her as much as she needs them. Bernie, recovering from the sudden death of her husband, John, kindly offers the weary Kate a room to rent. Not only does she recognize a troubled soul in Kate, she deeply desires the company. Aileen is fighting a losing battle with her teenage daughter, who is asserting her independence. Moira is Aileen’s younger sister, a sweet, unassuming woman, trying to keep the abuse she receives at the hands of her violent husband a secret from the group. Colleen, a fisherman’s wife, is never relaxed until her husband’s boat is safely in port. Oona is in remission from breast cancer, but struggling with her post-mastectomy body, and finding it difficult to reconnect with her husband.
These women make up the Glenmara Lace Society, where over thread and thimbles, they discuss any and all of life’s problems. They “had their own special history, knew each other better than anyone in the world, better than their families, even, because when it came to families, there were roles to play and expectations and arguments.” With Kate’s arrival and her expertise in fashion, they begin to see the huge gap in the market. Why not take this lovely lace and embroider it into some sexy lingerie? Not if Father Byrne has his way. He’ll stop at nothing to get the ladies back to making doilies.
Along with the acceptance and support Kate engenders from the group, she encounters Sullivan Deane, the resident artist and potter in the town. He came back to Glenmara after a devastating tragedy, and he and Kate soon learn they have many things in common, not just their shared loss.
Through her romance with the handsome Deane and the close friendships she forges with Bernie and the other women of the Lace Society, Kate soon learns that the only true path to healing is “perhaps to let yourself feel the pain, forgive yourself, as best you can, then try to let it go…That even though we lose the ones we’ve loved, they aren’t gone from us forever, that they are with us, still, but in a different way.”
Fans of THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY and THE LACE READER will enjoy this sweet and heartrending novel from Heather Barbieri, whose debut SNOW IN JULY was selected as a Book Sense Pick and a Glamour magazine “Riveting Read.” This multigenerational story of women will also make it a natural choice for book clubs.
--- Reviewed by Bronwyn Miller
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