This book tugged at my heart. I didn't grow up in the Catholic church, but it definitely had rules similar to Catholicism. So I mostly understood the religious thoughts. However, this is not a religious book. This is a book about family and how events happen that change people and their about family. I loved it! The family (mostly women) was completely torn apart by events. It was amazing to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for a beautiful read in exchange for an honest review.

Amazing book absolutely loved it. I want to live in Four Winds hiding out with the gales outside!!
I loved the Mere Brigid so interesting to see the cost of becoming a nun and the loss and gains all balanced out.

So happy to have had the chance to read this early many thanks to you.

4.5 stars
Loved this story which kept me enthralled - really felt like I 'connected' to each of the characters and felt like I was in their shoes and mind while I was reading and just couldn't stop turning the pages. Strong, solid, deep, doesn't shy away from issues (I was surprised it went this much into the Catholic Church and how the lives of women in Ireland were/are affected by it)
I am not giving this five stars because of the butchered French in there. An actual Frenchman saying 'Bon nuit'? Nope - basic mistake when it should be 'bonne nuit', nuit/night being feminine. A baby boy was also called 'cherie' - it's the feminine that takes the e, yet this could pass as the character was not supposed to be a native. Still, the Frenchman making that mistake, twice at that? No. Took some of the wind out of my sails, sadly, on what would've been a perfect book otherwise

Great family saga! I thoroughly enjoyed this book about 4 strong women, the secrets they keep – often from each other. Heavily featured themes include the Catholic church (often in a negative light) and abortion rights in Ireland. I did think the book was a bit too long, and did not think the various pilgrimages the women undertook added to the story.

EXCERPT: Prologue
PROLOGUE Christmas Eve
1953

She pulls her shabby black woollen coat tighter around her and wraps her scarf snugly against her cheeks. It is bitterly cold, her breath forming an opaque mist in the frosty moonlight. The stony path that leads from her grandmother’s cottage down to the farmhouse is slippery with ice, and she skitters and slides, grabbing a furze bush with her woollen-mitted hands to save herself from a fall. She pauses to catch her breath.

Venus, a radiant golden jewel, shines as brightly as the yellow slice of new moon against a black velvet sky speckled with glittering stars. Candlelit windows down in the valley and on the hillsides spill pools of light in the darkness. She’d lit the fat, red candle in her grandmother’s parlour window before she left, for the traditional welcome to the Christ child on Christmas Eve.

Normally she would feel delight and anticipation on this blessed night, though she is no longer a child and doesn’t believe in Father Christmas, unlike her two excited youngest siblings at home, who have already hung their stockings at the end of their beds.

Tonight she is bereft, her heart shattered into a thousand sharp-edged pieces. She looks down to her left beyond the stony fields that quilt the mountain, where weather-bowed, bare-branched trees and hedgerows define the boundaries to the Larkins’ farmland. Her heart feels as though a knife has stabbed and twisted it when she thinks of black-haired, brown-eyed Johnny Larkin, who had told her that he loved her more than he’d ever loved anyone. Who had pressed her up against the cold, hard wall of his father’s barn and kissed and caressed her in her most private places and done things to her that, even though she’d demurred and then protested, had shocked her, yet given her a fierce delight that Johnny loved and wanted her and not that skinny little rake, Peggy Fitzgerald, whose father owned the big farm next to the Larkins’.

Two days after Johnny told her he loved her, his engagement to Peggy had been announced. Tomorrow at Christmas Mass, Peggy will simper and giggle on Johnny’s arm, flashing the diamond ring Pa Larkin has lent his son the money to buy.

She can’t bear it. An anguished sob breaks the deep silence of the night. Her sorrow overwhelms her. A sudden, unexpected pain in her belly doubles her up, causing her to groan in agony. She feels dampness on her thighs, and pulling up her clothes sees the trickle of blood down her legs. Another spasm convulses her and, frightened, she takes deep breaths until it eases.

In the distance, she hears the sound of the carol singers who go from house to house, singing the glorious story of the birth of a child who would bring peace to all mankind.

As she loses her own child, in the shelter of the prickly furze bush, she hears the singing of “O Holy Night” floating across the fields from her parents’ house.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: Marie-Claire has just made the shocking discovery that her boyfriend (and business partner) is cheating on her. Reeling, she leaves her apartment in Toronto to travel home to Ireland, hoping the comfort of her family and a few familiar faces will ground her. She arrives just in time to celebrate her beloved great-aunt Reverend Mother Brigid’s retirement and eightieth birthday. It will be a long-awaited and touching reunion for three generations of her family, bringing her mother Keelin and grandmother Imelda—who have never quite gotten along—together as well.

But then all hell breaks loose.

Bitter, jealous Imelda makes a startling revelation at the party that forces them all to confront their pasts and face the truths that have shaped their lives. With four fierce, opinionated women in one family, will they ever be able to find common ground and move forward?

MY THOUGHTS: Families: you can't live with them; you can't live without them.

The Liberation of Brigid Dunne by Patricia Scanlan is a little like an onion. It is multi-layered and probably going to make you cry.

It is a novel of family relationships, of how easy it is to tear a family apart and how hard it is to put it back together. It is a novel of secrets and jealousies, of heartbreak and hope, of forgiveness and redemption set over a wide time span and against the changing background of the Catholic Church. It tells of the struggle for women's rights in Catholic Ireland, the fight for safe methods of birth control.

There is a strong background of Irish politics and Catholicism to this novel, but the primary focus is on the relationships between the four women of the family: sisters Brigid and Imelda, Imelda's daughter Keelin, and her daughter Marie-Claire.

The characters are well portrayed and very realistic. We probably all have an Imelda, or some version of her, in our families. This is more a character driven than plot driven novel.

It is a novel of dreams and ambitions, both thwarted and achieved. It is a reminder of how easy it is to blame others for our own shortcomings, our failures, rather than taking ownership of our own decisions; of how much love and support we deflect by hanging on to petty resentments and jealousies. It is also a reminder that what we see and the reality of the situation are often poles apart.

If you are worried that this might be a moralistic or 'preachy' read, don't be, because it's not. It's not soppy, or sloppy. It's a well constructed story of four women in one family, each of them strong in their own way, but also struggling with life, and their relationships with one another.

I enjoyed The Liberation of Brigid Dunne, but I didn't love it. A good solid read deserving of 😊😊😊.5 stars

'A workaholic (is) a flower with only one petal unfurled.'

THE AUTHOR: Patricia Scanlan was born in Dublin, where she still lives. Her #1 bestsellers include Apartment 3B; Finishing Touches; Foreign Affairs; Promises, Promises; Mirror, Mirror; City Girl; City Woman; City Lives; and Francesca’s Party. She has sold millions of books worldwide and is translated into many languages. Patricia is the series editor and a contributing author to the award winning Open Door literacy series, which she developed for adult literacy

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Atria Books via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Liberation of Brigid Dunne by Patricia Scanlan for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon and my webpage https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...

"The Liberation of Brigid Dunne" was a worthwhile read. It was a well written, interesting book with entertaining characters. It was definitely better than I had expected it would be.

Having studied in a convent from the age of four plus, I have a liking for anything convent or monastery like and this one fitted the bill.

Starting in Toronto Marie Claire seems to have it all - a career going places, a very handsome boyfriend with whom she sees a steady future ahead and everything looks rosy until she overhears a telephone conversation and her world is shattered. Determined to go out with chin up she moves away from Toronto back to Ireland to the comfort of what she knows best. Her family.

The timing is right - her beloved grand aunt's eightieth birthday and her retirement from the nunnery and the religious life and getting to meet her mother and father who will return to Ireland and meet up with her grandmother irascible though she is.

Woven into the strands of Marie Claire's life is also the life of Brigid (the nun) and Imelda her grandmother. Both are complicated lives with secrets hidden deep for decades. Then there is Marie Claire's mother and father with plenty of secrets of their own. At the eightieth birthday party with friends and religious present Imelda's viciousness holds no bounds and she lets it all rip apart destroying all pretense of family togetherness.

How to calm everyone down and bring some kind of peace to the family is the work of Brigid who wants to end the festering bitterness and animosity hidden. This is done in a particularly remarkable pilgrimage which was totally new to me (I am now looking into that aspect as it was a fascinating one).

A family saga with lots of history thrown in especially the role of the Church in the lives of Irishwomen and what disadvantages they faced as women by being part of the Church which was an intrinsic part of their lives.

This was a wonderful novel to read.

Thank you to Netgalley for a preview of this book. The characters were all interesting & I really enjoyed their back stories. The book discusses the horrors of what the Catholic Church did to so many people & it is heartbreaking to read. Patricia makes you empathise with all the characters even the ones you aren't meant to. This is testament to her talent & experience as a great writer

I have been a fan of certain authors for years. Rosamunde Pilcher, Maeve Binchy, and Patricia Scanlan. Ever since her early book series City Girls on to today. Francesca’s Party will always be my favorite and is a re-read every year or two.I love that she is still writing the Irish sagas that I have come to love and The Liberation Of Brigid Dunne is no exception.

The novel follow three generations of women. Reverend Mother Brigid, her sister Imelda, Imelda’s daughter Keelin and grand-daughter Marie-Claire. The story opens with Marie-Claire discovering her boyfriend has been cheating which helps her to make the decision to go back to Ireland to visit her family and for the 80th Birthday party for her great-aunt Brigid, then the fireworks start, her grandmother Imelda has a boatload of resentments and she let’s them fly. The rest of the book covers the fall out from the party and the way three generations of women can learn from and move on from the past. If you like generational novels set in Ireland with a good dose of drama, this book is for you. If you have not read Patricia Scanlan before, give her a try. She spins a great yarn!

If you enjoy well told family sagas definitely pick up this winner of a book. Emotional with a touch of tornado as four generations of women come together for a family celebration and it's anything but a celebration. This story will have you cheering and cringing at the same time. Happy reading!

This is a story of generations of Irish women coming together as a family to settle old grievances and glory in the progress that has occurred in Ireland vis-à-vis women’s rights. Though I generally love books set in Ireland, Maeve Binchy, etc. I found this very bleak and full of years of misery.

Though much is eventually set rights, I couldn’t relate to any of them. I do think women’s reading groups will be able to explore the roles of women, especially the consequences of pregnancy in non-progressive societies.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

Four women, three generations gather together for the first time in years- what could go wrong? Marie- Claire, her mother Keelin, her grandmother Imelda and her great aunt Brigid all have strong opinions. Each of them has a secret too, but the most important ones lie with Brigid, who is a nun. Scanlan explores not only family dynamics but also how the Catholic Church impacted women's lives in Ireland. More character driven than plot driven. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Fans of the dysfunctional family/revelations novel will appreciate this one.

Great characters, vivid setting and great story. I loved this book and was sad when it ended.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

I absolutely adored this book. The characters were so real that it sucked you in and made you feel a part of the story. You didn't want it to end!

The Liberation of Bridget Dunne is a gem of a story. Within the pages of a family drama is also the story of the actions of the Catholic Church in the Irish Republic. The author shines a bright light on the many crimes the church committed against women as it clung to its patrimony... controlling morality, sexuality, and information. The historical facts are presented within the pages of an extremely well written and interesting story as three generations of Dunnes go about living. This is not a diatribe against Christianity or faith in general. Neither is it what I would call a Christian novel using the story of evangelize. It is a fictional recounting of the long struggle for equality of Irish women. Bridget spent her adult life as a nun working as a nurse in Africa. Her biological sister Imelda married and had children. It’s their internal motives and reactions to societal mores, and those of Imelda’s daughter and granddaughter that kept this reader glued to her e-reader. I voluntarily reviewed an advance copy of this book from NetGalley. Most highly recommend.