Happy publication day to The Girls from Sandycove by Sian O’Gorman!🍦
In the mornings, my dogs and I leave the house for our walk, and we look a little trepidatiously into the dark and cold… Well, I do, anyway, they are always far more enthusiastic than me. And we head for the sea, towards Sandycove, one of the most beautiful parts of Dublin, and every day I think to myself how lucky I am to live here.
On we go, my dogs and I, along the dark streets and as we near Sandycove, other people start to emerge. Swimmers in their dry robes, or joggers with headphones, or cyclists in hi-vis, or just ambling dog-walkers, like us… and you begin to realise that this small place is full of life. There’s nothing sleepy about it.
Sandycove is a small village, set back off the sea, with a beach – its sandy cove – and a swimming hole called The Forty Foot. I moved to the area nearly two decades ago now, and have spent all this time walking around, peering through the gates of the grand houses or staring out to sea and coming up with stories. Sandycove and Dun Laoghaire, the neighbouring town, are the perfect backdrop to my stories about home and community, about love and life. Things happen in these small streets, people can bump into someone they’ve known all their lives or catch a glimpse of a handsome stranger.
In my new book, The Girls of Sandycove, it’s a place where my characters find solace and recover a part of themselves which they’d lost.
The novel begins with Kate, who left Sandycove years before, to travel after her the career of her mother, Lola, dominated everything. After being a phenomenally successful singer, Lola now realises that more than anything she wants to be in Kate’s life again.
When Kate discovers she is pregnant, she returns to Sandycove but when Lola hears her plan, she too makes her way back home. Kate’s best friend, Flora, is also at a crossroads after her marriage to the vain Justin ends abruptly. She too flees back to her mother’s house and they find healing and community – and themselves again. It’s a story full of love and friendship, of soothing old wounds, of finding new ways to live and even discovering new romances, all set against the sound of Sandycove’s sea.
Scroll to listen to Sian’s soundtrack to immerse yourself in the music of Sandycove!☘️