Less Than Perfect (36 page)

I step towards him and his arms await me. ‘I'm sorry too, Dad.'

I feel genuinely proud of him and what he has achieved. Since watching the disc, I'm more at peace. You see, I was hanging out for justice every bit as much as he was and now that it's been achieved I can finally trust, not only in the legal system but in everything: my family, my friends, and in fate and what it may or may not have in store. Despite his remarkable feat in driving that landmark civil case, I'm aware that my father has made many mistakes over the past eleven years. He should have been more supportive to my mother, and they would still be married
if he'd saved even a small part of himself for her. He should have given Maeve more support and guidance too, been quicker to help her past the schoolgirl stage she was frozen at for years. And when distance softened the edges of my hatred, he should have reached out to me, insistently, until I understood that my hatred was born from the deepest love, that I was the most like him of all his children and that I could never be fully happy without his approval and without him in my life.

I see each mistake with a new level of understanding. Before me is a softer, multi-dimensional, flawed but essentially altruistic man.

My father is less than perfect.

Like me.

Like Josh and Liam. And even Matthew, who will come forward at any moment to shake my father's hand.

While
Less Than Perfect
is a work of fiction, those who are familiar with recent Irish history and politics will be able to recognise that I drew on the Omagh bombing and the remarkable achievements of the Omagh Support & Self Help Group for inspiration. Professor Jonathan O'Reilly, Caitlin, Josh, Liam and all the other characters in the book are completely fictional, but their loss, grief, bravery, tenacity and ultimate triumph reflect the extraordinary strength of the Omagh people.

Thanks to Jacqueline Gabb, Sam Bartlett, Matthew Long-more, Stephen Cohen and Aleisha Davis for your technical assistance. Without your knowledge and experience certain parts of this book would not have been possible. I'm hugely grateful (and quick to add that any mistakes are totally my own!).

Thanks to my usual gang of readers, Rob Carroll, Amanda Longmore, Ann Riordan and Brian Cook (my fabulous,
multi-talented agent). As always, your recommendations have made this book much better than I could ever achieve on my own.

Thanks to Cate Paterson, publishing director at Pan Macmillan, for your wonderful ongoing support, and a big, enormous thanks to my publisher Alex Nahlous for your excellent suggestions and editing. I feel
extremely
lucky to have had you working on my book (and I promise I don't hold that massive you-know-what change against you!). Thanks, too, to Clara Finlay for caring enough to go through the manuscript word by word and doing such a scrupulous copy edit.

Thanks also to Dianne Blacklock and Liane Moriarty, fellow authors and great sounding boards on all things book-related. Dianne and Liane and I like each other so much that we produce a periodical newsletter called
Book Chat
. If you would like to subscribe, just go to my website: www.bercarroll.com. And check out Dianne and Liane's books – you will love them.

Being one of six, I have lots of my own ‘big family' experiences to draw from. But being one of eight and thirteen has a lot more street cred – so thanks to Jeanie Edwards and Stephen Cox for allowing me to steal some of your hilarious anecdotes.

Finally, thanks to Conal McKeever (sorry for cornering you with questions at all those parties), and to Erin Downey, Donna Heagney, Matt O'Mahony, Orla Quilligan and Gillian Henery. And thanks to all my readers. I hope you like this book. I've wanted to write about the North of Ireland for a long, long time.

Claire Quinlan is unlucky in love and fed up with her life in Dublin. So when an opportunity arises to transfer to the Sydney office of her company, she grabs it. She sets up house in Bondi with her old friend Fiona, finds a new boyfriend Paul, and is sure that her life has changed for the better.

But her new job and boyfriend are more challenging than she imagined. She finds herself falling for the handsome American vice-president, Robert Pozos. Robert is sophisticated and charming and very complicated. He spells another broken heart, but she just can't seem to stop herself …

Then Claire uncovers a corporate fraud and she suddenly doesn't know who she can trust. Everyone has something to lose: Robert, Fiona, Paul. But Claire, who always played it safe, is risking the most …

 

Niamh Lynch appears to have it all: a high-flying career, a handsome, successful husband and a loving family. But looks can be deceiving.

From the moment she has to deliver the terrible news that there will be heavy redundancies at her workplace, her marriage crumbles and her life falls apart.

Certain cracks have been there for a long time, since her family left Ireland. Others are new. Who will catch her as she falls? Her mother whom she can't forgive? Her father from his grave? Or Scott, a man who has just lost his job, but who seems to understand her like nobody else does.

 

Katie Horgan should soon be made partner at her law firm, but her love life is going nowhere – until she meets Jim Donnelly. Jim is smart, handsome and, like her parents, Irish. But he already has a girlfriend.

When Katie is sent to Ireland, she happily settles into her work at a clinic that provides free legal advice to the homeless. She befriends Mags who makes it her business to initiate Katie to Dublin's social scene. Then Jim Donnelly comes home on a visit, and everything begins to unravel …

The truth comes out, about Jim, Mags, and the reason that Katie's parents left Ireland – and Katie learns that life is not as black and white as she always thought.

 

Sarah Ryan grows up in her grandmother's house in a small Irish village. Sarah is clever and ambitious and eager to move away from the sleepy village. She fully believes that John Delaney, the boy-next-door and her first love, will be right by her side … until he breaks her heart.

Jodi Tyler is raised on Sydney's northern beaches amidst a close and loving family. But Jodi has a secret, a tragic secret which leaves her determined to make a success of her life. Like Sarah, Jodi's grandmother ends up providing her with a home. And when Jodi falls head over heels in love, she too ends up with a broken heart …

This is a story of two remarkable women who face all life's challenges head on – and those they love and lose on their journey. Set in Ireland, Australia, London and New York, Sarah and Jodi make their way in the world unaware that their lives are running in parallel and it is only when they both want the same thing that their paths will finally cross …