Sisterhood, heartbreak & loss: Sally Hanan’s debut is all about 80s Ireland
‘You can’t keep a secret in this town unless you leave with it…’
Looking for a nostalgic read this spring? Transport yourself back to Ireland in the 80s, complete with everything from Claddagh rings to the Gerry Ryan show, as you find yourself immersed in the complicated and heart-breaking Gallagher family’s drama.
Sally Hanan’s novel, ‘My Heart Went Walking’ is the perfect throwback read for anyone looking to be taken back to simpler times.
Úna and Ellie. Two sisters, one secret keeping them apart – until the worst happens.
Úna, eighteen and pregnant has a difficult choice to make. Can she leave her family and the boy she loved behind? The promise of Dublin beckons, and she’ll be ruined if she stays in her small Donegal village…but love and loss are more complicated than they seem and the choice is not always so simple.
A portrait of a dangerous time to be a young, unwed mother, Sally Hanan’s rendering of the late twentieth century in rural Ireland gives us a timely reminder of the ever-looming threat of Magdalene laundries through young, inexperienced eyes. Úna is naïve but hopeful leaving Donegal – but Dublin quickly gives her a dose of reality as she leaves all she knows behind.
And she may find that the Donegal she returns to, hasn’t frozen in time, and family and loved ones have to live their lives, despite her absence. Úna’s departure changed the course of everyone’s lives and suddenly nothing is as it should be. And the Donegal Úna returns to may be very unfamiliar indeed as fate takes a gut-wrenching turn…
Told with all the love and nostalgia of someone who once lived in and loved Ireland, Sally Hanan’s novel is a love letter to the Irish family unit, the country that still clearly holds her heart and the young woman that Úna becomes.
Watch as Úna faces her fears, strikes out on her own and learns that love perhaps really can conquer all.
Preorder the book here, coming out the 5th of February 2022.
