The Lace Makers of Glenmara: A Novel

"Charmingly wry yet evocative, with details and descriptions both telling and vivid.” —Boston Globe

“This hopeful, comforting novel is a testament to the power of taking chances and starting fresh and a reminder that life can bring joy after sorrow." — Miami Herald

From the author of Snow in July comes The Lace Makers of Glenmara: a “charming, moving story, written with a delicate touch” (Joanne Harris), as a struggling young fashion designer journeys to Ireland to mend a broken heart, and helps a group of local lace makers change their lives—and her own. Fans of the strong feminine voices of contemporary Irish literature such as Maeve Binchy (Nights of Rain and Stars, Tara Road) and Cecilia Ahern (P.S. I Love You, Where Rainbows End) will fall in love with The Lace Makers of Glenmara.

"You can always start again," Kate Robinson's mother once told her, "all it takes is a new thread." Overwhelmed by heartbreak and loss, the struggling twenty-six-year-old fashion designer follows her mother's advice and flees to her ancestral homeland of Ireland, hoping to break free of old patterns and reinvent herself.

When she arrives on the west coast, in the fading seaside hamlet of Glenmara, Kate quickly develops a bond with members of the local lace-making society: recently widowed Bernie; Aileen, estranged from her teenage daughter; Moira, caught in an abusive relationship; Oona, bearing the scars of breast cancer; and Colleen, worried about her fisherman husband, lost at sea. Under Glenmara's spell, Kate finds the inspiration that has eluded her, and soon she and the lace makers are creating a line of exquisite lingerie. The circle also offers them something more: the strength to face long-denied desires and fears. But not everyone welcomes Kate, and a series of unexpected events threatens to unravel everything the women have worked so hard for. . . .

“The Lace Makers of Glenmara is richly peopled and beguilingly charming but what ultimately makes it so moving is Heather Barbieri’s deep understanding that no life is immune from sorrow and difficulty. I read this wonderful novel with enormous pleasure.” - Margot Livesey, author of The House on Fortune Street

“The Lace Makers of Glenmara is a charming, moving story, written with a delicate touch.” - Joanne Harris

“The novel is steeped in folklore and tradition, and Barbieri writes with a sweet, lilting tone that serves the subject matter well. . . . This hopeful, comforting novel is a testament to the power of taking changes and starting fresh and a reminder that life can bring joy after sorrow.” - Hannah Sampson, The Miami Herald

“Barbieri’s deft writing style is charmingly wry yet evocative, with details and descriptions both telling and vivid. . . . . A sweet summertime yarn [that] . . . provides a lovely, leisurely escape to the bucolic charms of the Emerald Isle.” - Karen Campbell, Boston Globe

“Author Heather Barbieri examines with searching intelligence Kate’s personal resilience and her quest for creative fulfillment . . . . Barbieri’s rendering of the details of lacemaking seems impressively authentic. The novel features insights into human entanglements both current and from the past.” - Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Expect fresh starts, romance, intrigue, sudden tragedy and redemption.” - Sacramento Bee