On opposite sides of the world, half-siblings Cassie and Christo have built their lives around work, intent on ignoring their painful past.

When a dramatic storm in Galway hits the headlines, they're drawn back there to revisit a glorious childhood summer, the last before their mother died. But their journey uncovers memories of a far less happy summer - one that had tragic consequences.

Confronted with the havoc their mother left in her wake, Cassie and Christo are forced to face their past and - ready or not - to deal with the messy tangle of parental love and neglect that shaped them.

The Home Scar is a luminous and precise story about the inheritance of loss and the possibility of finally making peace with it.
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'Her beautifully simple style belies psychological complexity . . . and her tone is wryly accepting' 

Big Issue

'Subtle and authentic' 

Claire Fuller

'A gorgeous story of sibling love. I thoroughly enjoyed following Cassie and Christo's quest to discover the tangled roots of a past that binds them together' 

Louise Nealon

'Kathleen MacMahon's subject is memory itself: how we remember - and the impact upon our future lives when our memories deceive us. Compassionate and poignant, The Home Scar is a work of considerable moral power' 

Neil Hegarty

'A very grown-up novel about life and love, of course, and above all, the repercussions of a disrupted childhood . . . a real tour de force' 

Christine Dwyer Hickey