The Off-Season

Broke, quietly humiliated, and back in the harbour town she swore she'd outgrown, Orla Hennessey trades her collapsed ceramics studio for a room in her mother's guest house and a winter of scrubbing other people's sheets. Then there's Niall Dempsey on the pier, mending creels, carrying his father's failing mind alone. Old love, old grievances, and a friend hiding bruises under her sleeve — everything Orla has been running from waits for her through one long Irish off-season.