The Making of Her

An atmospheric, intergenerational novel set in 1990s Dublin about a couple who is reconnected with the daughter they long ago gave up for adoption when she gets in touch after thirty years, setting off an exploration into past secrets.Dublin 1996. Joan Egan lives a comfortable life. She and her husband of decades, Martin, and daughter, Carmel, are nicely situated in Dublin at the height of the Celtic Tiger economic boom. Then one day, everything changes when Joan receives a letter from Emma, the daughter who she and Martin gave up for adoption thirty years before. Emma's son, Ben, has leukemia and needs a bone marrow donor-and his grandparents are the last hope of saving him.While Joan grapples with the pain and regret of giving up her baby so long ago, she's also forced to confront her present, as the cracks in her marriage become increasingly impossible to ignore and the long- simmering tension with Carmel grows. Meanwhile, Carmel and Emma struggle to come to terms with the perceived sins of their mother, and imagine a future for their family before it is too late.The Making of Her brings readers on a tender and heartbreaking journey through the rich tapestry of Dublin, spanning from 1996 to 1965, to tell a story of a complicated experience of motherhood, a fraught marriage, a culture that would not allow a woman to find true happiness-and her journey to finally claim it.