As schoolgirls, Justine and her best friend Iseult dreamed of a future that revolved around marriage. They saw it as a happy ending, never imagining for a moment that the reality would be more complicated.

Coming up to fifty, they're still best friends. Justine has been married to Iseult’s brother for twenty-five years and lives in her childhood home. Iseult has spent her adult life abroad, her marriage clearly unhappy for reasons she won't discuss.

When Justine’s daughter suddenly announces her engagement, Justine is thrown into planning a big family wedding. Afraid that her daughter is making a mistake, she finds herself questioning the choices she and Iseult made decades earlier. This crisis of confidence tests Justine in new and unexpected ways.

From the Women’s Prize longlisted author of Nothing But Blue Sky and The Home Scar, Other People’s Lives is a captivating story about the decisions we make in a heartbeat, and their lifelong consequences.

Praise for Other People’s Lives

“A radiant novel that casts a tender yet unflinching eye upon the golden cage that is love. I found myself taking screenshots to send to friends because MacMahon nails it over and over again”

Claire Kilroy

“An elegant and beautifully observed novel by one of our finest contemporary writers”

Louise Kennedy

“Kathleen MacMahon is an astute chronicler of modern life, its loves and losses and all the intimate realities of enduring friendship”

David Park

“Incisive, witty and tender, there’s not a woman in the country who won’t relate to this fine and thought-provoking novel”

Christine Dwyer Hickey

“Sharp yet generous . . .  Honest and deeply engaging, it confronts love’s contradictions and life’s uneasy truths in ways that feel both new and profoundly familiar”

Ed O’Loughlin

“A born storyteller”

Mike McCormack

“I adored this novel . . . [it] asks difficult questions, unveils uncomfortable realities, and nudges forth unsettling answers, all while keeping the reader so engaged and so entertained that they simply don't want it to end. Shades of Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love, Tessa Hadley's The Past, and Jean Hanff Korelitz's The Latecomer – in other words, a book to inhale”

Belinda McKeon

“Warm-hearted and relatable, a book that perfectly captures the messiness of modern family life and the inscrutability of others — even, no, especially, the people we love the most”

Aingeala Flannery

“This novel of everyday life and love is simply exquisite, proving once again that MacMahon is one of Ireland's finest writers”

Anne Griffin

“Gets under the skin of long friendship and marriage so expertly that at times it's almost painfully recognisable. Every page in this wise, truthful novel is laden with astute and at times funny observations. It explores brilliantly all the complexity of women's lives – motherhood, marriage, friendship, familial duty – with a brutal honesty but also a great tenderness and lightness of touch”

Anne Tiernan

“Thoughtful and provocative, a beautifully narrated story of friendship and marriage”

Anna Fitzgerald

“I loved this absorbing, compassionate, and impressively realised novel. It is so beautifully observed, so penetrating, so coolly aware of the texture of people’s lives”

Neil Hegarty

“Perceptive, tender, astute, beguiling – Kathleen MacMahon is an observant storyteller who captures the push and pull of relationships, the compromises they require”

Martina Devlin

“Kathleen MacMahon writes with precision and tenderness about quietly complex lives. Beautiful”

Hilary Fannin

“I really and truly loved this tender, deeply satisfying novel about love, marriage and the decisions that follow us home. Kathleen MacMahon has an incredible gift for detail and for language, and it adds up to something that is very real and completely engrossing”

Orla Mackey

“Sharp, humorous and page-turning . . .  domestic drama at its most universal, a thought provoking and utterly absorbing read”

Sinéad Crowley

“An elegant, beautifully written novel full of empathy, heart, wit and hope. One for fans of Elizabeth Strout, Alison Lurie and Clare Chambers”

Henrietta McKervey

“Razor sharp on friendship, grief and the unknowable beast that is marriage – will have you shrieking with recognition”

Alice Ryan, winner an Irish Book Award for There's Been a Little Incident

“Filled with wry insights about enduring friendship, marriage, family, motherhood, and the tedium of domesticity – along with frequent flashes of humour about how much of that tedium falls to women, particularly mothers . . . page-turning and populated by memorable characters”

Catherine Dunne

“Beautifully explores marriages in all their complicated and nuanced forms; lifelong friendships; and the melancholy that many women experience – “They want someone to witness their lives before they die” – Amen to that!”

Sinéad Moriarty

“Other People’s Lives is a tender-hearted portrait of modern life, told with McMahon’s trademark wit and warmth”

Louise Nealon

“I loved Other People’s Lives. It's so tender and moving, and insightful into the lives of women and how people change over the course of a lifetime. It's a moving examination of marriage, family and friendship and the delicate disappointments of all three. Kathleen writes with such elegance and acuity about love. A joy to read. I'm certain women everywhere will love it”

Edel Coffey

“Kathleen MacMahon is a natural storyteller whose insights on marriage and friendship feel brilliantly real. Other People’s Lives is a forensic examination of the silent, significant sacrifices made by women day after day in the name of love and family”

Sarah Gilmartin