Echoes (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "It was sometimes called Brigid's Cave, the echo cave, and if you shouted your question loud enough in the right direction you got an answer..." (more)
Key Phrases: echo cave, cliff road, history prize, Gerry Doyle, Miss O'Hara, Mary Catherine (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The bracing sea air brings little pleasure to the year-round residents of Castlebay, a village on the coast of Ireland, where class lines are strictly observed and morals publicly monitored. The youngest daughter of a shopkeeper whose meagre living depends on summer trade, Clare O'Brien is determined to move beyond her present circumstances. Hard work and the guidance of an irreverent, caring schoolteacher bring the resolute scholar to a college in Dublin. There, her steps falter when she enters into an ardent affair with David Power, the son of Castlebay's only doctor and another willing exile. Although David returns her love, their devotion is sorely tested when they are forced to marry and return home. As a wealthy, new-fledged doctor, David easily resumes his privileged position, but Clare is trapped between her mother-in-law's cold fury and the town's unease. Sharply drawn, memorable characters and a convincing picture of a small Irish community bring freshness and zest to a familiar tale. Binchy also wrote Light a Penny Candle. 50,000 first printing; Literary Guild alternate; first serial to Cosmopolitan; paperback rights to Dell; U.K. rights: Century Publishing; translation rights: Christine Green. January
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This romantic melodrama, set in an Irish seaside town in the Fifties and early Sixties, is as wholesome and engaging as the author's first novel, Light a Penny Candle ( LJ 2/15/83). Memorable characters include a poor shopkeeper's daughter who wins a university scholarship, only to miss final exams by a cruel twist of fate; a medical student who shocks his family by marrying ``beneath him''; a lonely schoolteacher who guards two scandalous secrets about her local celebrity brother; and a kindly, ubiquitous priest who knows all, tells nothing, and holds everyone together. It's a little slow to get into, but by the halfway mark the reader is fully involved in all the subplots and is turning pages nonstop. Recommended for most public libraries and for YA collections. Literary Guild alternate. Joyce Smothers, Ocean Cty. Lib., Toms River, N.J.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Dell (February 10, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440122090
• ISBN-13: 978-0440122098
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #723,170 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of the 'rites of passage' genre by far, May 27, 2000

By	Dr W. Richards "wmr-uk" (Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I've read everything Maeve Binchy has written, and in my opinion this is by far the best of her many novels. It's about a group of friends growing up together in a small seaside town in 1950s Ireland. As they get older they discover there are differences of status between their families, and Claire and David, who are beginning to fall in love as teenagers, discover his family is not receptive to their relationship.

The story moves on, through their college years and beyond, and along the way Binchy shows the passage of time by subtly blending social and political changes in with the characters' lives. Binchy has fantastic story-telling skills, and these are best exhibited in her earlier books, such as this and Light a Penny Candle; I did find some of her later books a little disappointing.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Soul wrenching at its finest, March 14, 1999

By A Customer

I have never, repeat never, read a book as touching and involving as this one. I have no clue why this was my first introduction to such a superior storyteller as Maeve Binchy. I'm only saddened that I've waited so long to read one of her books. I can't wait to get another. This lady has a gift. This book is enthralling. Definitely not a story you will soon forget if ever. The characters are amazingly real, you grow so attached to them faults and all. You will be happy for them at times and your heart will absolutely break for them at other times. Simply fabulous. Although a little slow in the beginning you won't be able to put it down when things start happening. Although I didn't like the way the ending left me hanging, I couldn't dare think it wasn't worth it. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves a good story! However this one isn't good, it's wonderful!

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Left me unsatisfied, April 26, 2001

By	Lakala2 "suecevans" (Rochester, MN) - See all my reviews

I started reading this book about 6:00 one night, and ended up staying awake until about 4:00 to finish it. I loved it, the beginning anyway. The characters were very real and the story was very good. I got very caught up it in, and couldn't put it down. Then came the last fifty or maybe a hundred pages. Maeve Binchy set up an amazing plot, a little depressing maybe, but still good, but the ending was no where near my expectations based on the rest of the book. It seemed like she spent months building up the story, then realized "Oh no! I only have two days to my deadline!" then hastily wrapped up the book in a very unsatisfying way that was untrue to the characters and very disappointing. Read it anyway, it's still a very good book, just don't take the ending as personnally as I did. I spent the next day very sad and very tired.