Tara Road

Irish writer and journalist Maeve Binchy (1940–2012) is well known not only in her homeland but around the world. In addition to stories, Binchy wrote more than a dozen novels; her books consistently became bestsellers and repeatedly won prestigious international awards. In the 1970s she published three collections of stories—quite successfully—but true fame came after her first novel, “Light a Penny Candle” (1982). “The Hawthorn Tree,” written in 2006, received the warmest reviews from readers and critics alike. On the edge of the Irish town of Rossmore, the Hawthorn Tree grows, where a spring of Saint Anne bubbles. Some claim the place has miraculous power; others believe it’s a fetish around which ridiculous superstitions are cultivated. There are rumors that soon a highway will be laid around the town—and that means the forest will have to be uprooted and the spring destroyed. But people have been coming here from generation to generation to share their dreams and fears… Of course, the townspeople will benefit from building a new road—yet will something infinitely more valuable be lost along with it, beyond modern comfort? When you have to choose between good traditions and promises of the future, passions in Rossmore flare up in earnest… The book is released in a new translation.