The Irish Goodbye
By Heather Aimee O’Neill
Published 2025
Read July 2026
Three sisters converge on their parents’ home in Long Island for Thanksgiving. Cait, the oldest, is in from London with her toddler twins. She’s separated from her husband and has recently lost her lucrative job although she is still throwing money around including paying for catering the family Thanksgiving dinner, replete with waiters serving fancy appetizers and wine. Alice, the middle daughter, lives near her parents and has been helping them the best she can as they begin to fail and as their house is in need of more and more maintenance. Maggie, the youngest, has brought her girlfriend despite her concerns that her Irish Catholic mother and the priest who attends all their family celebrations won’t approve.
Add to all of this potential drama, we learn the family suffered a tragedy some twenty years ago precipitated by the death of a friend of their oldest child, Christopher (Topher) while he was on Topher’s boat. The boy’s family sued Topher’s family for wrongful death and won which nearly bankrupt the family, a reason it’s been difficult to maintain their home properly.
While this reader enjoys family drama and readily scoops up books by Anne Tyler, this one never quite captured her full attention, possibly because this reader didn’t really like any of the characters. Cait is self-centered, irritating, and more focused on a high school crush she invites to dinner than on her family or children. After having an affair with a married woman, Maggie has finally found a fellow lesbian who would likely make a good partner. But Maggie stepped out on this new lover with her old flame and is struggling with what to do. Maggie is the character most impacted by her mother’s Catholic views and practices. Alice’s feelings that her sisters need to start helping her more with regards to her parents and their property are most believable. This reader also found the way the stories resolved a little too pat.
But this reader did stick with the book to see how the various characters might evolve and wasn’t fully disappointed. This was a debut novel and a pretty good one in that regard.
