Beginning in New York September 2001, we meet Cora whose father is among the many thousands missing after the horrors of 9/11, leaving her an orphan. The city is full of photos of the missing attached to walls and bridges, Cora adds posters of her father to them. She receives a letter from an aunt she never knew about, offering her the opportunity to go and live with her in Ireland. This sparks memories of an old computer game Cora used to play, where two sisters have to try and save pupils of a boarding school from being murdered. Cora accepts the invitation and flies to Ireland where she meets her Aunt Roisin. The book then jumps back in time to 1974 when Roisin is still a young girl. We are introduced to her older sister Maire and Michael, the boy from next door.

The tale switches back and forth from the 1970s to the present day, telling the saga of three generations of an Irish family; Roisin and Maire, Cora and Cora's daughter Lyca. Many topics are covered including rape, abortion, mental health, women artists in the 1970s, suicide and family secrets. All are well researched and authentically described. The portrayal of each main character is well thought out, my favourite being Roisin. The saga of love and loss sensitively written.

I was so engaged at the beginning, I expected to finish in a couple of days however this wasn't the case. In my opinion the story is told in quite a chaotic manner, not quite finishing one strand before moving on to another. I got a bit lost a few times, not being too sure who I was reading about which did spoil my enjoyment of a well thought out storyline. For this reason I rate the book 3.5 rounded up to 4.

With thanks to NetGalley and Viking for my advanced reader copy in return for my honest and unbiased review.

An intriguing story starting with a girl seeing a picture in the paper of her father leaping from one of the Twin Towers on 9/11. Very realistic descriptions and characters. However, I did need all my concentration to keep track of the different generations and the relationship between various characters.
Nevertheless, a compulsive read.

What a great start to my 2025 reading.
Confessions is primarily the story of two sisters, Maire and Roisin from County Donegal whose lives change dramatically after the sudden death of their father but the story starts with Cora, Maires daughter and unfolds from there.
I loved the family dynamics, the twists of their lives and that Catherine Airey doesn't shy away from including painful and uncomfortable details within these imperfect lives.

Really worth adding to your reading list.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read Confessions.

Multi-generational narratives are my jam so I knew I was going to love this.
Taking place over half a century, Confessions is about two sisters, Roisin and Maire.

I really loved the range of narratives in this. The opening of Cora on the day of 9/11 was one of my favourites, along with Maire’s time at art school.

Usually these multigenerational narratives are chronological but I enjoyed the novelty that this wasn’t. However it did mean particular in the Lyca narrative towards the end I had to keep reminding myself which sister was which.

I’ve seen some reviews compare this to Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow due to the references to the game which is peppered throughout and I think that’s very misleading. The game is barely in it at all and though I like it as a concept, I don’t think it’s strong enough and could have been taken out without being missed.

I really liked all the characters and I really liked the later themes of reproductive rights, particularly being set in Ireland. I really liked the juxtaposition of the sisters’ experiences and how it affected their lives.

This is a story about secrets and there is one that I worried would never come out and when the reveal happened I was truly shocked and satisfied.

This isn’t for everyone. It’s a family drama where not much happens, but these stories are some of my favourites.

4.5 stars

4.5 stars

This was an absolutely stunning debut (seriously. I cannot believe this is her first book). It explores the lives of 3 generations of women in Donegal + NYC and is seriously heavy at times (unsurprisingly, considering it starts off with 9/11), dealing with immigration, rape, addiction, mental illness + grief. I really liked the disjointed narrative - although I love multiple pov, I find sometimes it can feel formulaic so I loved how this format made the story unfold more naturally.

I had only minor qualms with this book - I didn’t care as much about the final pov + would’ve liked more from cora's pov in ireland because her character development occurred almost entirely off the page and she seemed like a completely different person when we saw her again. But that aside, this was brilliant

I was asked to review by NetGalley

Wow this is a debut! - this story explores love, and loss from various perspectives and different points in time.An emotive read exploring love and loss from different perspectives,and points in time which really grips the reader.

This is three generations of women- starts around 2001 - although we as readers get to know what happended before this time. The tory continues on till 2018.

What an absolute gripping read. So recommended and due for publication 23 January 2025.

For all the buzz this book is getting, I was never really invested in the story. It's a surprisingly conventional tale of three generations of women dealing with love, sex, pregnancy, childbirth, sibling rivalry and family secrets. There's more than a touch of melodrama, and while Airey's prose is smooth and competent, it's not distinctive or stylish.

With fractured timelines, switching from the 1970s to 2020s, changing focalisations of the various women, and movements from Ireland to New York, it all feels a bit busy and sacrifices depth of characterisation to plot.

There are interesting gestures towards women as artists but the motif of the computer game feels clumsy and the theme of family secrets is overblown and overused in so-called 'women's fiction'. It's as if the connections between the various stories are missing even though some of the early scenes, especially, are vivid.

It feels to me like this loses its way and the emotional authenticity of the start dissipates so that it becomes a bit mechanical and formulaic in getting to the end - plot trumps organic development.

A promising debut but this kind of family saga built on secrets would need some kind of additional energy to hold my attention: I felt I'd read this story many times before.

Confessions by Catherine Airey

I think I may have found a favourite of 2025 already and it’s a Debut!!

A Debut… I can’t quite believe that this is Airey’s debut Novel. Her writing, and what she has accomplished with these characters is exceptional.

“We are only as sick as our secrets”

I had the most amazing weekend with these characters and I don’t think I will be forgetting them for a long long time. I’ve released recently that there is something about intergenerational novels that hit for me and this one did not disappoint.

We first meet 16 year old Cora in 2001, her father has just died in 9/11 and her mother died a few years prior. She is now orphaned and alone. We follow her while she try’s to navigate her life on her own, when she receives a letter from her estranged Aunt Roisin in Ireland.

We then learn the stories and perspectives of Aunt Roisin, Cora’s mother Marie and finally Luca Cora’s daughter.
This is a deep, dark, messy book with complex characters and subjects but I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I could start this book again tomorrow and enjoy it just as much as I did yesterday.

I am very interested to see whether this book flys off the shelves as quick as I am predicting it will.
Well done Catherine this is such a remarkable novel I can’t wait to see what you write next.
Thank you to @netgalley and @vikingbooks for my free Digital ARC

I have pre ordered my Hardback copy, make sure you do too, you won’t regret it. Release date 23/01

I felt so transported to a nostalgic time with this book, whilst my life growing up differed in many ways to the young women in this book, the periods set and the small details given evoked so many memories and emotions. Set between the vastness of city life in New York and the quiet rural landscape of County Donegal, Ireland, the stories unfold in the most amazing and captivating voices, Cora's memories, Roisins diaries and Lyca's curiosity that brings all of the secrets of the past to the present. The generational links in this story, how trauma and patterns are repeated, and the raw experiences of women in particular that trickle down and stain each recipient , different eras but the same underlying issues and oppressions.
It is a fascinating and beautiful book that is a stunning debut for this author.

A wonderful saga following the lives of 3 generations of women all affected by their elder’s illness. Heart breaking, wonderfully engrossing, captivating. It will sit with me for a while.

I really loved this book. It has some of the most authentic feeling characters and relationships of any book I’ve ever read. Granted, there are some very coincidental plot points towards the end that took me out of it just a little bit, but they were necessary to show the complexities of the lies and manipulation that were uncovered.


I loved all of the women and their points of view, the interconnected narratives worked so well and I absolutely tore through the book as it was such an engaging book that flowed so well. I think this book will be so popular when released and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to read this.

Confessions follows three generations of women following them from New York to rural Donegal and back again. We move back and forth in time, picking up with different characters’ narratives. Opening with 9/11 and Cora losing her father in the attack, she is invited to stay with her aunt in Donegal, opening her up to a side of her family she has never known.

I thought this was an absorbing and ambitious debut novel. I didn’t know much about the story before starting it and I think that was quite a fun way of approaching it as I had no idea where the story would go. I liked the characters and really felt for Róisín in particular. I enjoyed Airey’s writing style and flew through it (I read half of it on a delayed flight back to London).

Airey incorporates real events into the story and I’m not entirely sure how I felt about the choice. The Screamers really did live in a house in Burtonport and they were followed by another strange group that is kind of portrayed in the book or also not? I think it’s tricky to incorporate real events into fiction when they are so specific already. I don’t want to go into specifics but there was one particular thing that kept happening to characters that I found a bit epetitive and annoying. I imagine it was a conscious choice to show how history can repeat/the interconnectedness of storylines but it didn’t work for me.

Overall, I enjoyed Confessions and thought it was an accomplished debut novel. I’m keen to see what Airey writes next and what type of stories she decides to tell. If you enjoy family sagas, then I would definitely recommend you pick it up.

A well written debut novel that touches on some very emotive subjects such as 9/11 and dementia. At times a bit slow and definitely not an uplifting novel. Set in Ireland and America thus gaining a varied potential audience. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to ARC this book.

I love it when a book from a debut author grabs me in, forcing me to read.

This book is too good to be able towrite a suitable review. It has to be read.

This melancholy novel moves back and forth in time to tell the story of three generations of Irish women, each of whom has a voice and all of whom are affected in some way by mental illness. Cora is 16 in 2001 when her father Michael is killed on 11 September. Her mother Maire died when she was 8 so now she's back in Ireland to live with her aunt Roisin. And then her daughter Lyra picks things up in 2018 but it all loops back again to when Maire went to New York to study art. The trauma here is immense, the issues this family struggles with oppressive. It's a lot. That said it's also atmospheric and immersive and if the ending is a little.....no spoilers. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. This is a big book that reads quickly and you will be rooting for all of these women.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for an early read of this debut novel from Catherine Airey. 'Confessions' spans three generations of women,two countries-USA and Ireland and multiple points of view. It's at times an emotional read as we uncover the secrets that families hide - from outsiders and each other. I'm happy to recommend this well written novel.

"We are only as sick as our secrets." -Roisin Dooley

This is a brilliant and ambitious family saga. The novel starts in New York in September 2001. Cora Brady’s father worked as an accountant in the World Trade Centre and has not returned from work after the 9/11 atrocity. Cora’s mother, Maire, died seven years previously. This now leaves our young protagonist facing an uncertain future. However, as the weeks pass, Cora’s aunt Roisin contacts her and offers her a home and new life in the small town of Burtonport in County Donegal - the place that her parents met as children.

This book tells the stories of Cora, Maire, Roisin and Lyca (Cora’s daughter) over the course of five decades (from the 1970s to the later 2010s). Each narrative perspective is absorbing and Airey explores the themes of love, identity, loss and motherhood through the intricate lives and experiences of our female characters. I found this book utterly absorbing and a joy to read. An outstanding debut from a writer to watch out for in the future.

I believe this is a debut novel which is extraordinary! So well written, the characters are so well developed that I found myself thinking of them when I had put down the book. I loved the dual timeline, opening with the horrific events of 9/11 before going back to the 70s. The mother and daughter thread was so believable , heart breaking and beautiful. I really enjoyed this and it will stay with me for a long time.

This is a story about three generations of women and the secrets in their family, unearthed only decades later in the post-Covid world that we now know and inhabit. In 1970s Burtonport, Ireland, Maire and Ro are two sisters who have an intense love-hate relationship. Their mother has depression, their father's struggling financially, and they have half-African friend, Michael, who is in love with Maire but who Ro is in love with. Ro and Michael submit Maire's art to a school, hoping that she will get accepted there and someday become a real artist. It works, and in 1979, Maire goes to NYU on scholarship. It does not end well for her, and she leaves behind her daughter Cora.

On 11/9/2001, Cora's finds out that her father, Michael, died because his office was in one of the Twin Towers. Ro becomes her legal guardian, and as it turns out, Cora's pregnant at sixteen, so she gives birth to Lyca and raises her while working as an activist for women's reproductive rights. After Ro dies, Lyca pieces together the secrets in Maire and Ro's lives and learns that there is more to her ancestors and that she inherited from them than she ever imagined. This is a story about mental illness, art, and a lineage of both.

When reading Plath's 'The Bell Jar,' Ro says, "Right away it made me full of longing, hungry for the lives I'll never lead. Maybe it's just the fact that it's set in New York. There's a shininess to the narrator's life, the experiences she exposes herself to. Still the same feeling, though, of being trapped, not knowing how to act. It doesn't matter how many people you know, or where you go. You're left with yourself." I find that this passage encapsulates the three women's lives as they yearn for what/who they don't have, comparing themselves to others and letting their desires make them reckless. The videogame is an apt metaphor for the sisters and the bitter regrets they carried till the end of their lives; in the end they did not manage to choose each other, to reconcile and confess and seek forgiveness, until it was too late.

I received an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin General UK, and the author Catherine Airey.
I really enjoyed this story and the multiple narratives and timelines that linked up succinctly at the end. Although you had to suspend disbelief for the resolution a little bit, it didn't make it any less satisfying. An engaging read, 4 stars.