The Marriage Bed

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An exquisitely lush and lyrical story about marriage and motherhood, attachment and letting go, set in early twentieth century Dublin.Hailed by critics for "connecting what's felt on the skin with what stirs the soul" (Elle) and for prose that The New York Times calls "shimmering," Regina McBride writes with exceptional passion and courage. Now, she has crafted her most heartbreakingly beautiful novel yet."...To my husband's mother, I was an unassuming girl, a kind of empty vessel like the Virgin Mary who would carry holiness in her womb." So begins The Marriage Bed, the story of Deirdre O'Breen, who comes from the Great Blasket Island, a windswept place off the Irish coast. It is there that something stunning happens to Deirdre's parents, shamefully driving her to the mainland.The crossing takes her to the civilized world -- and toward Manus, the son of a wealthy and devout family. An architect, he is stirred not by God but by imagina...