BOOK NEWS
The American cover of Irish author Anna McPartlin's next novel Alexandra, Gone (aka So What If I'm Broken) has been released. The synopsis says: "Once, Jane Moore and Alexandra Walsh were inseparable, sharing secrets and stolen candy, plotting their futures together. But when Jane became pregnant at 17, they drifted slowly apart. Jane has spent the years since raising her son, now 17 himself, on her own, running a gallery, managing her sister's art career, and looking after their volatile mother - all the while trying not to resent the limited choices life has given her. Then a quirk of fate and a faulty elevator bring Jane into contact with Tom, Alexandra's husband, who has some shocking news. Alexandra disappeared from a south Dublin suburb months ago, and Tom has been searching fruitlessly for her. Jane offers to help, as do the elevator's other passengers - Jane's brilliant but self-absorbed sister, Elle, and Leslie Sheehan, a reclusive web designer who's ready to step back into the world again. And as Jane quickly realises, Tom isn't the only one among them who's looking for something . . . or travelling toward unexpected revelations about love, life, and what it means to let go, in every sense."
Anna McPartlin's latest novel So What If I'm Broken (aka Alexandra, Gone) is about four fans of Irish rocker Jack Lukeman who form unlikely friendships after they are trapped in an elevator at a concert. For Tom, his life is focused on finding his missing wife. One day Alexandra left home, chatted to her neighbour, got on to the DART, arrived at Dalkey train station and then disappeared. And Tom needs to know why. Jane is so busy caring for her son Kurt, her eccentric artist sister Elle and her mean mother Rose that she doesn't have any time for herself. Leslie has lost her entire family to cancer. She has spent years as a loner waiting to die herself but after radical surgery she's finally ready to start living again. Then one night Tom steps into a lift with Jane, Elle and Leslie at the gig in London. An hour later the four emerge with their lives forever intertwined.
Fans of Irish author Anna McPartlin, take note. All of her three novels have been re-released under different names. Her debut novel from 2006 Pack Up the Moon - about Emma dealing with the death of her boyfriend - is also known as Because You Are With Me. McPartlin, a former stand-up comedian, also has her second novel Apart from the Crowd, from 2007, due to be released later this year as No Way to Say Goodbye. It's about five lost souls, including Mary who is recovering from tragic losses and Sam who needs a fresh start. McPartlin's 2008 novel The Truth Will Out has also been retagged as As Sure as the Sun. This is about a bride, Harri, who suffers a panic attack before her wedding. Her twin brother George believes there's more to the story than cold feet. When he confronts their parents, the truth they reveal devastates both twins.
