Tara Road

Set in Dublin, Ireland, and Stoneyfield, Connecticut, the novel follows two women whose lives intersect through a summer house exchange, each seeking escape from personal devastation.

Ria Johnson grows up in a modest Dublin housing estate with her widowed mother, Nora, and her older sister, Hilary. After secretarial school, Ria takes a job at a real estate agency, where she befriends Rosemary Ryan, an ambitious young woman who becomes her closest companion. When Danny Lynch, a handsome young agent, transfers to the office, Ria feels an instant attraction that Danny returns. He describes No. 16 Tara Road, a dilapidated Victorian house where he rents a room, with passionate admiration, declaring he will own it one day.

Danny devises a bold plan to sell a country mansion belonging to Barney McCarthy, a self-made property developer, by suggesting it include a recording studio. Going directly to Barney, he earns enough commission to buy No. 16 Tara Road for sixty thousand pounds. When Ria discovers she is pregnant, Danny is overjoyed, and they marry in a small reception at the house.

Over the following years, the couple restores the house, buying antiques at auction while raising their daughter, Annie, and later a son, Brian. Barney becomes their benefactor, though his business fortunes are precarious. He lives a double life, married to Mona McCarthy while maintaining a relationship with his mistress, Polly Callaghan. Danny puts the house up as collateral for a personal guarantee backing Barney's debts. Ria befriends Gertie, who manages a dress hire shop and later marries the volatile Jack Brennan. Colm Barry, a former bank clerk, opens a restaurant on the corner of Tara Road and tends a kitchen garden in the Lynches' back yard. Rosemary rises to own a printing company, and Ria's mother moves into a nearby cottage with her dog, Pliers, becoming a neighborhood fixture.

Beneath the surface, the marriage erodes. Danny is increasingly absent. Rosemary spots him dining privately with Orla King, a former colleague, and says nothing to Ria. When Danny ends the affair and Orla threatens exposure, Rosemary intervenes. At Brian's seventh birthday party, twelve-year-old Annie peers through a back gate and sees Rosemary having sex with a man in a summerhouse, though she cannot identify him. She records the incident in her diary, telling no one.

By the time Annie is fourteen, Ria decides what the marriage needs is another baby. She takes Danny to Colm's restaurant, but Danny, thinking she has discovered his secret, reveals the truth: He has been seeing a twenty-two-year-old named Bernadette Dunne, who is pregnant with his child. He says he loves Bernadette and wants to spend his life with her. Ria is devastated and collapses before reaching the door. Colm catches her.

In the weeks that follow, Rosemary and Gertie rally around Ria. When Danny tells the children, Annie is furious and Brian asks if they are getting divorced. Both tell Danny to leave. Then the phone rings: Marilyn Vine, an American woman, proposes a house exchange for July and August, offering a comfortable home with a swimming pool in Stoneyfield, Connecticut. Ria, desperate to escape, agrees immediately. Danny reluctantly concedes.

On Ria's last night at Tara Road, Danny comes to say goodbye. Standing in the front room they restored together, he says it has all been "a mess" and "a waste." Ria misreads this as a desire to reconcile and throws her arms around him, but Danny pulls away, saying he was only expressing regret.

Marilyn Vine is a private, guarded woman who works in a college alumni office. Her husband, Greg Vine, a history professor, has taken a lectureship in Hawaii, but Marilyn refuses to accompany him. Before departing for Dublin, she leaves a room filled with motorcycle posters and photographs of a teenage boy closed but unlocked, trusting Ria will respect it. In Dublin, she begins gardening ferociously and is besieged by Ria's social circle: Nora with Pliers, Hilary, Gertie needing cash, and Rosemary leaving gracious notes.

In Stoneyfield, Ria discovers the mysterious room and assumes Marilyn's son, Dale, is in Hawaii with Greg. She begins swimming daily and takes a summer job at a local gourmet shop. Through Marilyn's colleague Heidi Franks, Ria learns the shattering truth: Dale is dead, killed in a motorcycle accident. He was on life support for six months before Marilyn and Greg agreed to turn off the machine. Marilyn's inability to forgive those who survived and Greg's need for forgiveness drove them apart. Later, Dale's surviving friend Hubie Green reveals a secret Ria promises to keep: It was Dale, not the other boy, who stole the motorcycles and was driving.

In Dublin, Marilyn's grief begins to unlock. When Annie and Brian visit for a farewell dinner before flying to Stoneyfield, Brian innocently asks about Dale returning from Hawaii. Marilyn tells them the truth and speaks openly about her son for the first time. That night, she cries for the first time since the accident, recognizing that the children's unguarded questions broke through what years of professional help could not.

Danny flies to Stoneyfield, and Ria believes he is coming back. Instead, he delivers devastating news: Barney McCarthy is bankrupt, and the personal guarantee means No. 16 Tara Road will be seized. Ria tells Danny that losing him was worse news than losing the house. That night, overcome with grief, they make love, but the next morning a frantic message arrives: Bernadette has had a hemorrhage and may lose the baby. Danny flies home immediately, and Ria recognizes the night meant far less to him than to her.

In Dublin, crises converge. Bernadette loses her baby. Barney faces ruin until Mona reveals years of secret savings and offers rescue on strict conditions: He must pay his debtors, return the personal guarantee on Tara Road, and end all contact with Polly. The house is saved from seizure but must still be sold. Marilyn discovers Rosemary and Danny making love in the summerhouse and realizes Rosemary has betrayed Ria for years. She resolves never to tell Ria but pressures Rosemary into supporting Ria's planned catering business.

Jack Brennan goes on a drunken rampage through Tara Road and is struck and killed by a van. Ria flies home for the funeral, where she and Marilyn finally meet, recognizing each other across the crowded church. They embrace outside, their connection instant and easy. Marilyn stays three extra days, and the two women talk deep into the nights, each holding back one secret: Marilyn does not reveal Rosemary's affair with Danny, and Ria does not reveal that Dale was driving the motorcycle.

Greg arrives in Dublin, having learned that Marilyn finally spoke about Dale. He and Marilyn drive to the Wicklow hills, where they talk openly for the first time since the accident and begin to rebuild their marriage. Danny meets Ria at Tara Road to plan the house sale, advising her to conduct it herself for the best price. At the airport, Annie puts her arm around her mother's waist and tells Marilyn, "We'll keep the world ticking over until you get back. Won't we, Mam?" Ria, watching her daughter's unexpected tenderness, realizes "that it might be possible after all."