"Best Love, Rosie...is the book of my years of commuting between the melancholy of Ireland and the optimism of America." -Nuala O'Faolain
Like many a modern, well-travelled woman, Rosie has lived a fascinating life, full of adventure and the pleasure of many lovers in her younger years. Now, facing the challenges of middle-age, she finds that the things that defined her most - work, love, independence - begin to fail her. She comes home to Ireland to care for her elderly aunt Min, trapped by circumstances in sleepy Dublin. But when an opportunity arises to visit New York again, the story takes an unexpected turn...
Published to rave reviews in France (Sabine Wespieser, Editeur), Best Love, Rosie became an instant bestseller in Ireland, where it was published to mark the first anniversary of Nuala's death. Here is one last bittersweet look through those fierce eyes at aging, death, relationships and, as always, love.
Nuala O'Faolain was an Irish journalist, TV producer, book reviewer, teacher and author. She became internationally well-known for her two volumes of memoir, Are You Somebody? and Almost There as well as a novel, My Dream of You, all featured on The New York Times Best Seller list.
Praise for ARE YOU SOMEBODY?
"This book has to be read" - The New York Times
"An extraordinary memoir, beautifully written" - Roddy Doyle
"A rich, fierce memoir..." - New Yorker
"A remarkable memoir, poignant, truthful, imparting that quiet wisdom which suffering brings" - Edna O'Brien
"You don't want the book to end; it glows with compassion and you want more, more because you know this is a fine wine of a life, richer as it ages." - Frank McCourt
"This book has to be read. One of the most perfectly observed portraits of female loneliness I've ever come across....O'Faolain brings a spiky, independent intelligence that vanquishes cliche." - Zoe Heller, The New York Times Book Review
"A beautiful exploration of human loneliness and happiness, of contentment and longing." - Alice McDermott, Washington Post Book World
"A lovely memoir that traces the growth of a woman and her country over the last 50 years."
- Publishers Weekly
Irish praise for BEST LOVE, ROSIE
"This is a rich, frank and heartening novel. It is an excursion and an education; a long, luxurious wander through a library of bold, beautiful and inimitable things. It is vintage Nuala, one last time." - Belinda McKeon, The Sunday Irish Times
"Everyone feels like they knew Nuala. And it is impossible to separate Nuala from the novel -- the similarities with both Rosie and Min are most definitely there -- which makes reading it a very strange experience. The way she brought the D-word into our national conversation -- how she laid bare her life and death in an attempt to better understand society and the way the world worked -- was not always easy to take. However, her novels are, and it is rather comforting to have one last bittersweet journey with Nuala." - Independent.ie
"...Rosie generally wears her learning, and her philosophy, and her spirituality, lightly. The novel succeeds in blending the deep and the shallow, the wise and the mildly absurd, in a series of seamless transitions from kitchen to library, frocks to philosophy, body to mind.
... But the mixture of the light and the serious is undoubtedly also brought about by the author's own attitude to life. O'Faolain was brilliant, educated, deeply thoughtful, but she was down to earth and despised pretension. So does her book. That is its great charm, and that is why it resists categorisation. There will be no ready made niche for it in the bookshop.
It is just Nuala." - Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, The Irish Times
Genre: General Fiction
Like many a modern, well-travelled woman, Rosie has lived a fascinating life, full of adventure and the pleasure of many lovers in her younger years. Now, facing the challenges of middle-age, she finds that the things that defined her most - work, love, independence - begin to fail her. She comes home to Ireland to care for her elderly aunt Min, trapped by circumstances in sleepy Dublin. But when an opportunity arises to visit New York again, the story takes an unexpected turn...
Published to rave reviews in France (Sabine Wespieser, Editeur), Best Love, Rosie became an instant bestseller in Ireland, where it was published to mark the first anniversary of Nuala's death. Here is one last bittersweet look through those fierce eyes at aging, death, relationships and, as always, love.
Nuala O'Faolain was an Irish journalist, TV producer, book reviewer, teacher and author. She became internationally well-known for her two volumes of memoir, Are You Somebody? and Almost There as well as a novel, My Dream of You, all featured on The New York Times Best Seller list.
Praise for ARE YOU SOMEBODY?
"This book has to be read" - The New York Times
"An extraordinary memoir, beautifully written" - Roddy Doyle
"A rich, fierce memoir..." - New Yorker
"A remarkable memoir, poignant, truthful, imparting that quiet wisdom which suffering brings" - Edna O'Brien
"You don't want the book to end; it glows with compassion and you want more, more because you know this is a fine wine of a life, richer as it ages." - Frank McCourt
"This book has to be read. One of the most perfectly observed portraits of female loneliness I've ever come across....O'Faolain brings a spiky, independent intelligence that vanquishes cliche." - Zoe Heller, The New York Times Book Review
"A beautiful exploration of human loneliness and happiness, of contentment and longing." - Alice McDermott, Washington Post Book World
"A lovely memoir that traces the growth of a woman and her country over the last 50 years."
- Publishers Weekly
Irish praise for BEST LOVE, ROSIE
"This is a rich, frank and heartening novel. It is an excursion and an education; a long, luxurious wander through a library of bold, beautiful and inimitable things. It is vintage Nuala, one last time." - Belinda McKeon, The Sunday Irish Times
"Everyone feels like they knew Nuala. And it is impossible to separate Nuala from the novel -- the similarities with both Rosie and Min are most definitely there -- which makes reading it a very strange experience. The way she brought the D-word into our national conversation -- how she laid bare her life and death in an attempt to better understand society and the way the world worked -- was not always easy to take. However, her novels are, and it is rather comforting to have one last bittersweet journey with Nuala." - Independent.ie
"...Rosie generally wears her learning, and her philosophy, and her spirituality, lightly. The novel succeeds in blending the deep and the shallow, the wise and the mildly absurd, in a series of seamless transitions from kitchen to library, frocks to philosophy, body to mind.
... But the mixture of the light and the serious is undoubtedly also brought about by the author's own attitude to life. O'Faolain was brilliant, educated, deeply thoughtful, but she was down to earth and despised pretension. So does her book. That is its great charm, and that is why it resists categorisation. There will be no ready made niche for it in the bookshop.
It is just Nuala." - Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, The Irish Times
Genre: General Fiction
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