Light a Penny Candle - by Maeve Binchy (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

To escape the chaos of London during World War II, young Elizabeth White is sent to live a safer life in the small Irish town of Kilgarret. It is there, in the crowded, chaotic O'Connor household, that she meet Aisling--a girl who soon becomes her very best friend, sharing her pet kitten and secretly teaching her the intricacies of Catholicism.

Aisling's boldness brings Elizabeth out of her proper shell; later, her support carries Elizabeth through the painful end of her parents' chilly marriage. In return, Elizabeth's friendship helps Aisling endure her own unsatisfying marriage to a raging alcoholic. Through the years, they come to believe they can overcome any conflict, conquer any hardship--as long as they have each other. Now they're about to find out if they're right...

"A sumptuous saga."--Harper's

"Wonderful...a novel that could be mistaken for life."--New York Daily News

Review Quotes

"Extraordinary."--Philadelphia Inquirer

"An Irish Thorn Birds...complete and rewarding."--Newsday

"A find...so rich and engrossing you can forget your own problems."--Glamour

"A remarkably gifted writer...a wonderful student of human nature."--The New York Times Book Review

"Reading one of Maeve Binchy's novels is like coming home."--The Washington Post

"Binchy is a grand storyteller in the finest Irish tradition...she writes from the heart."--The Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Binchy's genius is transforming storytelling into art."--San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle

"Binchy's tales combine warmth and spunk in a quintessentially Celtic way...In the field of women's popular fiction, the Dublin storyteller sticks out like a faultless solitaire on a Woolworth's jewelry counter."--Chicago Tribune

About the Author

Maeve Binchy was born in County Dublin and educated at the Holy Child convent in Killiney and at University College, Dublin. After a spell as a teacher she joined The Irish Times. Her first novel, Light a Penny Candle, was published in 1982, and she went on to write more than twenty books, all of them bestsellers. Several have been adapted for film and television, most notably Circle of Friends and Tara Road, which was an Oprah's Book Club selection. She was married to writer and broadcaster Gordon Snell for thirty-five years. She passed away in 2012 at the age of seventy-two.