Patricia Gaffney – författare

Growing up, Anna admired and emulated her unmarried Aunt Rose, who led a much more exotic and glamorous life than her mother. But as her mother lies dying, Anna finds out that the woman she looked to more than her own mother betrayed them both in the worst way. Now an acutely mistrustful adult, Anna suffers yet another betrayal, at the hands of her lover. Looking for an escape, Anna returns home, though it means helping her aunt run the family restaurant. Rose, who for 20 years has struggled to regain Anna's trust, realizes that although her niece has come home, it's clear she doesn't plan to stay. Feelings are frosty as ever, and Anna is so deadset on leaving, that she fails to recognize true love, even as it reaches up to grab her by the heart. Moving, funny, and ultimately reassuring about life and love, Gaffney's new novel is just the thing her readers have been waiting for.

Through the interconnected lives of three generations of women in a small town in rural Virginia, this memorable novel explores the layers of tradition and responsibility, commitment and passion that bind them. After the sudden death of her husband, Carrie must come to terms not only with her grief, but with the guilt that their love had already died. Struggling to go on, to support her loving and vivacious daughter, Ruth, she slowly shakes off the sorrow that surrounds her and begins a new life. Complicating matters is Carrie's mother, Dana, who believes she has always acted in her daughter's best interests. Having driven Carrie away from her first love, the soulful, unconventional Jess, Dana has no idea how to behave now that he has re-entered her daughter's life. Skilfully weaving together the voices of Ruth, Dana and Carrie, Patricia Gaffney explores the dichotomies inherent in all female relationships in a spirited and wholly unsentimental way. CIRCLE OF THREE is about believing in impossible things, like second chances - and maybe even happy endings.

Imagine a bond that's richer than that between siblings, stronger than those within a marriage. Four ordinary women have found just this, and after more than ten years of shared life, their friendship has become a remarkable and invincible force Isabel has a broken marriage behind her and a grown up son she loves but rarely sees. Two years into remission from breast cancer, she embraces everything that is alternative, and exists by forgiveness. Lee is blessed with money, but didn't find love until she had abandoned all hope; now she has Henry - but no children, a longing that seems a wish too far. Rudy is young and beautiful, damaged by her past and an off-centred family, and now married to a brutal and controlling man. Emma, feisty and insecure, does not believe in love - until she falls for the one man she can never have. In this warm, funny, spirited and heartfelt novel, Patricia Gaffney unfolds two years in the lives of the Saving Graces, as together they face one another's high and low points. But then when out of the blue tragedy strikes and they are faced with the unthinkable, a shadow looms over their bond, threatening to destroy it for ever...