"Though the bodies fall" by Noel O'Regan

An audio book.

Mihall (Mick) lives in an isolated cliff-top cottage in Ireland, with his dog Sammy. He's a birdspotter and ship-spotter, keeping logbooks. His mother had died 10 year before. His parents moved there when he was 6. He has sisters Onya and Shesia. His parents had looked after "the visitors", telling Mihall to distract his younger sisters while they were doing so. When his father died, Mihall, 12, took over his father's role. The visitors are those who've wandered out, contemplating suicide.

Onya phones to say she's going to visit - she wants to discuss something. She hasn't been back for a decade. She was a childhood friend of Brenda, who runs a general store in the local village.

Onya says that she and Shesia want to sell up. She tells him that Nadine (an ex-girlfriend?) is engaged.

The narrative flips between the current timeline and the past. His mother was devoted to saving the visitors. She told Mihall he must keep secret about it - like being Clark Kent. He'd left though, for university. He liked sport and get Nadine, a national level rower. They lived together for a year before Mihall was brave enough to take her home. They argued, made up. Later she had a career-wrecking accident. They married. Poor, they moved into the now empty cottage. She got pregnant. He hadn't told her about the visitors. They spooked her. She miscarried and left him.

He refuses to sell the house. Onya says his devoted to the visitors is a way to avoid real life. At a party when with Brenda and Mihall she reveals to Mihall that Brenda has always fancied him, and told Brenda that Nadine had been pregnant. Shesia returns after years. She tells him that she'd tried suicide in their bathroom once.

He has a heart attack and calls for an ambulance. While waiting, he decides to sell the house for his own good. He's found out the Brenda's recently divorced and wonders whether he could rent a room from her.

Other reviews

• Colette Sheridan (What Micheál fails to understand is why [his mother] Aideen decided to give all the love she had to the visitors rather than her children. And that is something this reviewer grappled with. Although this is a fine novel, the mother figure is somewhat elusive, difficult to grasp, not fully credible.)
• Lucy Popescu