SEPTEMBER 2024: The Inheritance by Cauvery Madhavan – BEARA PENINSULA

1st September 2024

The Inheritance by Cauvery Madhavan, dual timeline novel set on the Beara Peninsula, West Cork.

1986

If you are looking for a rich Irish setting, this novel ticks all the boxes: it is resplendent with beautifully detailed vistas and languorous sweeps across the lush countryside. But it is not only evocation of landscape and setting, the author also devotes herself to creating well rounded and well-developed characters who seem an integral part of the Irish landscape.

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“It all began the day he found out that his sister was his mother”. The novel opens with these striking words – a phenomenon which is not as uncommon as one might think. Marlo arrives late from Croydon, into a different and beautiful world, and concurs with his mother that the scenery takes his breath away. It does.

He has a small and regular income writing for a newspaper in Butte, Montana but this really isn’t sufficient to sustain him. He picks up some work driving a bus, which of course is a grand vehicle (!) for introducing the colourful folk who live in the area. He comes into contact with Kitty and her son, Scully, who, on the one hand needs a high level of input from his mother as he has trouble speaking, yet on the other, there is more to him than meets the eye.

Threaded through the story is a second narrative set in the early 1600s, when the English were wreaking havoc in Ireland and this adds a real rich drama and contextual backdrop to the sense of place, the sense of tradition.

Notions of the folklore, of love, loss and belonging all pepper the narrative and it is a story that really is full of heart, with an overlay of otherworldliness (as yo might expect). This is well-penned storytelling for anyone who wants to connect with Ireland and enjoy an immersive dive into small community, emotionally charged dynamics. It is clear the author loves Ireland and through her words I feel like I have had a trip to the country.