Tangents

The novel centres on two characters who met and fell in love who then part because–life happened. It opens with them both in their 50s. Michael is interrupted on his PC by an invitation from a program to take a memory holiday. He is drawn into the opportunities that this offers to re-live memories. His selections are haunted by his perceived failings and his sense of guilt over decisions he has made. Alongside Michael’s story, there is Niamh’s. Hers is a love story of mothers and daughters rediscovering through shared maturity how to love those we love and how to smile. They select photographs from an old box that have stories to tell. Ultimately, Niamh knows that the one story she has to tell is what happened in Amsterdam. The revelation offers a resolution for both strands of the novel, but it is left for Michael’s son to be his witness. Aideen learns of her father, the man who tried to kill Niamh, for the first time. Tangents investigates love and disillusionment attempting a balance between the two.