Editions

Nothing But Blue Sky

  • Imprint: Penguin Ireland

  • ISBN: 9781844884759

  • Length: 320  Pages

  • RRP: £12.99

Nothing But Blue Sky

RELEASED 07/05/2020

Is there such a thing as a perfect marriage?

David thought so. But when his wife Mary Rose dies suddenly he has to think again. In reliving their twenty years together David sees that the ground beneath them had shifted and he simply hadn't noticed. Or had chosen not to.

Figuring out who Mary Rose really was and the secrets that she kept - some of these hidden in plain sight - makes David wonder if he really knew her. Did he even know himself?

Nothing But Blue Sky is a precise and tender story of love in marriage - a gripping examination of what binds couples together and of what keeps them apart.

'What a beautiful novel ... elegant, understated, subtly powerful, and rings so perfectly true that it is easy to forget that this is a work of fiction. There are particular moments that keep occurring to me unbidden at the oddest times - beautiful, poignant moments, drawn with such quiet power. And that quiet power is alive and at work on every page' Donal Ryan

'Gentle and triumphant, MacMahon offers us a novel steeped in beautiful prose and poignant tenderness' Anne Griffin, author of When All Is Said

  • Imprint: Penguin Ireland

  • ISBN: 9781844884759

  • Length: 320  Pages

  • RRP: £12.99

Reviews

  • What a beautiful novel ... elegant, understated, subtly powerful, and rings so perfectly true that it is easy to forget that this is a work of fiction. There are particular moments that keep occurring to me unbidden at the oddest times - beautiful, poignant moments, drawn with such quiet power. And that quiet power is alive and at work on every page

    Donal Ryan

  • Insightful and deeply moving, this is a story of one man's grief that somehow manages to hold onto its sense of humour. I loved this book

    Christine Dwyer Hickey

  • Kathleen MacMahon's prose could not appear more effortless or beautiful

    Sunday Independent

  • Gentle and triumphant, MacMahon offers us a novel seeped in beautiful prose and poignant tenderness

    Anne Griffin

  • Kathleen MacMahon has written an absorbing, grave, and emotionally resonant study of a marriage, of a life, of masculinity and of grief. A marvellous achievement

    Neil Hegarty

  • Stunning

    Henrietta McKervey, via Twitter

  • Just finished Nothing But Blue Sky. I feel as if I've been gutted, replenished with added pieces of tiny crystals and neatly put back together. A truly astonishing novel

    Margaret Madden, Bleach House Library

  • It's rare to read an account of a happy normal marriage and she does it brilliantly

    Sue Leonard

About the Author

Kathleen MacMahon

Nothing But Blue Sky is Kathleen MacMahon's third novel. Her first, This is How it Ends, published in 2012, was translated into more than twenty languages, spent five weeks at the top of the bestseller lists in Ireland, and was a Richard and Judy Book Club choice in the UK. Her second novel, The Long, Hot Summer was published to much acclaim in 2015 and was also a bestseller in Ireland. Kathleen is a former radio and television journalist with Ireland's national broadcaster, RTÉ, and she lives in Dublin with her family.

Kathleen MacMahon

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