Light a Penny Candle (Famous Firsts) - Softcover

Binchy, Maeve

Softcover

ISBN 10: 045121143X ISBN 13: 9780451211439

Publisher: Berkley, 2003

Synopsis

Beloved author Maeve Binchy's first published novel, an engrossing coming of age tale about the incredible bond of friendship.

To escape the chaos of London during World War II, young Elizabeth White is sent to live a safer life in the small Irish town of Kilgarret. It is there, in the crowded, chaotic O’Connor household, that she meet Aisling—a girl who soon becomes her very best friend, sharing her pet kitten and secretly teaching her the intricacies of Catholicism.

Aisling’s boldness brings Elizabeth out of her proper shell; later, her support carries Elizabeth through the painful end of her parents’ chilly marriage. In return, Elizabeth’s friendship helps Aisling endure her own unsatisfying marriage to a raging alcoholic. Through the years, they come to believe they can overcome any conflict, conquer any hardship—as long as they have each other. Now they’re about to find out if they're right...

“A sumptuous saga.”—Harper’s

“Wonderful...a novel that could be mistaken for life.”—New York Daily News

About this title

About the Author:

Maeve Binchy was born in County Dublin and educated at the Holy Child convent in Killiney and at University College, Dublin. After a spell as a teacher she joined The Irish Times. Her first novel, Light a Penny Candle, was published in 1982, and she went on to write more than twenty books, all of them bestsellers. Several have been adapted for film and television, most notably Circle of Friends and Tara Road, which was an Oprah’s Book Club selection. She was married to writer and broadcaster Gordon Snell for thirty-five years. She passed away in 2012 at the age of seventy-two.

From AudioFile:

Shipped out of WWII-battered London by her mother, 10-year-old evacuee Elizabeth White moves in with friends, the O'Connors, in Ireland. In a book that spans three decades, author Maeve Binchy follows pale, timid Elizabeth and her red-haired, Irish-Catholic "sister," Aisling, through first loves, weddings, drunken brawls, funerals, and births. Reader Kate Binchy, the author's cousin, nimbly carries the listener from England to Ireland and back again. She casts a warm spell as she makes each character come alive, from Elizabeth's staid father, to her roguish lover, to the Polish merchant who teaches her about valuing herself. Like the title's "penny candle," Binchy's personalities glow lingeringly in the listener's mind. E.V. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Berkley
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 045121143X
• ISBN 13: 9780451211439
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 592