Tara Road

Tara Road
by Maeve Binchy

Tara Road
List Price: $14.00
Our Price: $4.75
You Save: $9.25 (66%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.95 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Maeve Binchy
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-05-29
ISBN: 0385341814
Number of pages: 656
Publisher: Dell

Book Reviews of Tara Road

Book Review: maybe it's just me
Summary: 2 Stars

Maybe it's just me...I was happy to receive this paperback copy, especially since it's set in Ireland initially, and I was completely enchanted with Ireland on my visits there. Also, some of my very favorite books have been Oprah's selections. But I am giving up after 140 pages. Is it ever going to be anything more than a typical soap opera? "Angela's Ashes" it's not! Sorry, but I can't really maintain an interest in any of the predictable, stereotypical characters.

Summary of Tara Road

Ria lived on Tara Road in Dublin with her dashing husband, Danny, and their two children. She fully believed she was happily married, right up until the day Danny told her he was leaving her to be with his young, pregnant girlfriend. By a chance phone call, Ria meets Marilyn, a woman from New England unable to come to terms with her only son's death and now separated from her husband. The two women exchange houses for the summer with extraordinary consequences, each learning that the other has a deep secret that can never be revealed.

Drawn into lifestyles vastly differing from their own, at first each resents the news of how well the other is getting on. Ria seems to have become quite a hostess, entertaining half the neighborhood, which at first irritates the reserved and withdrawn Marilyn, a woman who has always guarded her privacy. Marilyn seems to have become bosom friends with Ria's children, as well as with Colm, a handsome restaurateur, whom Ria has begun to miss terribly. At the end of the summer, the women at last meet face-to-face. Having learned a great deal, about themselves and about each other, they find that they have become, firmly and forever, good friends.

A moving story rendered with the deft touch of a master artisan, Tara Road is Maeve Binchy at her very best?utterly beautiful, hauntingly unforgettable, entirely original, and wholly enjoyable.


From the Hardcover edition.
Oprah Book ClubŪ Selection, September 1999: Against all odds, two newlyweds manage to buy the house of their dreams. In 1982, property speculation is beginning to be a big, big thing in Dublin--and their street is very much in an up-and-coming part of town. "They laughed and hugged each other. Danny Lynch from the broken-down cottage in the back of beyond and Ria Johnson from the corner house in the big, shabby estate were not only living like gentry in a big Tara Road mansion, they were actually debating what style of dining table to buy." But for its various inhabitants, the street is to become a boulevard of dreams--some broken, others created anew. Maeve Binchy has long proved herself a secure hand at multiple story lines, and over the course of 500 satisfying pages she focuses on Ria; her best friend, Rosemary Ryan, a beautiful, endlessly selfish career woman; Gertie, the battered wife of a drunkard; and several other intriguing women, each of whom has secrets not to be shared. There is even an all-knowing fortune teller who early on hints that Ria will travel and start a successful business--two things she knows are definitely not in the offing.

Yet after our supposedly happy housewife and mother of two is confronted by some inexorable home truths, a chance phone call from America will change her life, forcing her to discard her illusions about men, women, and marriage and start all over again. At the same time, the Connecticut caller, Marilyn Vine, has her own lessons to learn when she and Ria swap houses for the summer. Yet there's nothing remotely preachy about this novel--even the bad guys (and yes, they're usually guys) and beautiful mistresses get to maintain some appeal. Instead, Tara Road is a stirring look at the reality behind our consuming fantasies, and a page-turner to boot. --Siobhan Carson

Contemporary Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Books I read in 2008
Twilight Collector's Edition (The Twilight Saga) ImageTwilight Collector's Edition (The Twilight Saga)
by Stephenie Meyer
Little, Brown Young Readers; Published: 2008-10-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $19.80
Price in other shops: $30.00
The Secret Sisters ImageThe Secret Sisters
by Joni Rodgers
HarperCollins; Published: 2006-02-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops: $23.95
Tara Road ImageTara Road
by Maeve Binchy
Dell; Published: 2007-05-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.94
Price in other shops: $14.00
A Man of No Moon: A Novel ImageA Man of No Moon: A Novel
by Jenny McPhee
Counterpoint; Published: 2007-08-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.93
Price in other shops: $24.00
Flight Lessons ImageFlight Lessons
by Patricia Gaffney
HarperCollins e-books; HarperCollins e-books; Release date: 2003-08-26; Published: 2003-08-26; Kindle Edition; eBooks
Best price: $6.39
Price in other shops: $7.99
Remember Me: A Novel ImageRemember Me: A Novel
by Trezza Azzopardi
Grove Press; Published: 2005-01-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.45
Price in other shops: $13.00
A Wedding in December : A Novel ImageA Wedding in December : A Novel
by Anita Shreve
Little, Brown; Published: 2005-10-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops: $25.95
To Kill a Mockingbird (slipcased edition) ImageTo Kill a Mockingbird (slipcased edition)
by Harper Lee
HarperCollins; Published: 2006-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.90
Price in other shops: $35.00
Light on Snow ImageLight on Snow
by Anita Shreve
Little Brown & Company; Published: 2004-10-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.97
Price in other shops: $24.95
Still Summer ImageStill Summer
by Jacquelyn Mitchard
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 2007-08-23; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.45
Price in other shops: $24.99
Similar Books and other products
Quentins ImageQuentins
by Maeve Binchy
Dutton / Penguin; Published: 2002-09-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.13
Price in other shops: $25.95
This Year It Will Be Different ImageThis Year It Will Be Different
by Maeve Binchy
Dell; Published: 1997-10-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.20
Price in other shops: $7.99
The Return Journey ImageThe Return Journey
by Maeve Binchy
Dell; Published: 2007-05-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.77
Price in other shops: $14.00
Circle of Friends ImageCircle of Friends
by Maeve Binchy
Dell; Published: 2007-05-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.21
Price in other shops: $14.00
Light A Penny Candle ImageLight A Penny Candle
by Maeve Binchy
NAL Trade; Published: 2007-11-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.87
Price in other shops: $15.00
The Copper Beech ImageThe Copper Beech
by Maeve Binchy
Dell; Published: 1993-10-02; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.23
Price in other shops: $7.99
Whitethorn Woods (Vintage) ImageWhitethorn Woods (Vintage)
by Maeve Binchy
Anchor; Published: 2008-01-29; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.99
Price in other shops: $7.99
Scarlet Feather ImageScarlet Feather
by Maeve Binchy
Dutton; Published: 2001-02-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.92
Price in other shops: $25.95
Evening Class ImageEvening Class
by Maeve Binchy
Dell; Published: 2007-05-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops: $14.00
The Glass Lake ImageThe Glass Lake
by Maeve Binchy
Dell; Published: 1996-03-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.80
Price in other shops: $7.99
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories