Sandycove lands 'rich and moving' novel from MacMahon

Sandycove has landed an “extraordinarily rich and involving” new novel from Women’s Prize longlisted author Kathleen MacMahon. 

Patricia Deevy, deputy publisher, bought UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, to The Home Scar from Marianne Gunn O’Connor of the Marianne Gunn O’Connor Film, TV and Literary Agency. It will be published in February 2023. 

The Home Scar is a contemporary story centred on the grown-up half-siblings of a beautiful but troubled Irish woman, a muse to their famous fathers, who died when they were children. In an attempt to unlock the mystery of their mother’s life the two, Cassie, a sculptor living in Mexico City and Christo, a Cambridge mathematician, revisit the south Galway coast where they spent a last happy summer with her.  The synopsis goes on: "But Cassie and Christo will discover that their rosy memories of that holiday are wrong in fundamental ways and have to rethink everything they thought they knew about the past. In doing so, they also have to accept some difficult truths about their present lives."  

The Home Scar is MacMahon’s fourth novel and her second with Sandycove following last year’s Women’s Prize longlisted Nothing But Blue Sky. 

Deevy said: “The Home Scar is an extraordinarily rich and involving story about the role of parental love (and neglect) in making us who we are. Kathleen’s exploration of how Cassie and Christo navigate their emotional legacies is so original, perceptive and moving, and her writing is so effortless, that the novel is utterly transporting and pleasurable. It’s a total joy to publish an author who is going from strength to strength and I’m thrilled and honoured that once again Kathleen has entrusted Penguin with her work." 

MacMahon added: “This book is very close to my heart, both because of its west of Ireland setting and because of its subject matter—the great and complex mystery that a mother’s life presents to her children. Patricia Deevy was the editor of my previous novel and I’ve been lucky to have her with me on this novel too. I’m very much looking forward to working with all the wonderful team at Penguin Sandycove in bringing The Home Scar into the world next year.”