Confessions, Catherine Airey
Catherine Airey’s Confessions follows three generations of women moving from Ireland to New York, and it was a book that I simply didn’t want to end. It opens with Cora Brady, stranded in New York in September 2001 after she loses her father to 9/11. When she receives a letter from her estranged aunt in rural Ireland inviting her to come and stay, her family history begins to unspool, revealing generations of unspoken history and secrets.
I could barely believe how good this book was. It’s Airey’s debut novel, something that’s barely believable because of the sheer craft of her incredibly accomplished and complex writing. Emotive and poignant, it made me cry multiple times, with thoughtful and nuanced approaches to motherhood and sisterhood that I couldn’t get enough of.
Confessions regularly switches narrative, from Cora to her aunt Roisin, to her mother, Maire, and finally to Cora’s own daughter. I always love novels that move between generational perspectives, and this is a book that mastered that form. Airey writes especially well on the consequences of actions, how we can’t escape the past, and the many ways in which history is doomed to repeat itself.
Particularly striking is Maire, a character with real depth, who affirms the idea that it’s our past that both shapes us and remains almost impossible to part with. She is a figure who doesn’t conform to societal standards and is therefore seen as ‘bad’, yet her relationship with those around her, Roisin especially is an example of the strength and uniqueness of sisterhood, and was a real pleasure to read.
Confessions is the book I’ve been recommending to family and friends since I first read it, and Airey’s work is something that I can’t wait to read more of – it’s truly spellbinding.
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