Overview

When Cora inherits a house in rural County Down from a grandmother she never knew, she steps into a family history shaped by absence, silence, and restraint. Ballybrae House is both shelter and a place of renewal, holding the imprints of those who came before and the hope of something new.   Told through the shifting perspectives of three women across generations, Familiar follows Annie as she approaches death and discovers unexpected freedom in letting go; Joyce, her daughter, whose voice falters under the weight of care but who finds liberation in Cora’s arrival; and Cora, who must learn to inhabit a place – and a past – that was deliberately withheld from her, and find the courage to begin again. Familiar is a story about belonging and the uneasy intimacy of family, asking what it means to survive within inherited structures – and how, at moments of rupture, those structures might be remade.

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9781917000192

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Reviews

Praise for Bethany Joy Dawson and My Father’s House: Dawson's debut shows a steady hand and real patience as the plot carefully unravels. Each dynamic is meticulously drawn, whether between old flames, children and parents, or brothers and sisters. Suspicious of easy framings of the past, the novel offers up something much more complex. Caroline Magennis, The Irish Times A literary debut filled with intriguing characters. Bethany Dawson is a name to watch. Sue Leonard, The Irish Examiner The family Dawson depicts is somehow every Irish family of a certain era, held together by its secrets, bound by its evasions, by a web of loyalties, only one of which is love. The story is a familiar one, reminiscent of John McGahern's work. The writing is honed to a fine point and Dawson shows that she is a significant new voice. Lorraine Courtney, Irish Independent

Author Information

Bethany Joy Dawson holds an MPhil in Creative Writing from Trinity College Dublin and her debut novel, My Father’s House, was published in 2013 to critical acclaim. Familiar is her second novel. She is the curator of Upstream, an offering of weekly essays that map the landscape as she sees it – literary, physical, spiritual and other.  Originally from Co. Down, she now lives in Sligo with her husband and three children.

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