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ALan Murrin’s assured debut is about the claustrophobia and cruelty of small-town life. It is set in County Donegal in 1994, when divorce was still illegal in Ireland. Coastal road focuses on three women trapped in marriage.
Colette Crowley, a bohemian poet, left her husband Sean and three sons after an affair with a married man in Dublin. At the beginning of the novel, she returns home, the relationship over, but Sean refuses to let her visit their youngest child, who is still at school. She rents the Mullins’ run-down cottage on the deserted coast road and tries to make ends meet by running creative writing workshops. Downtrodden Dolores Mullen is pregnant with her fourth child, while her promiscuous husband Donal watches their new neighbor with the eyes of a predator.
Colette befriends Izzy Chiavini, who has her own issues with her controlling politician husband James. Colette enlists Izzy’s help to see her child. But when Shawn finds out, his vengeful response affects them all.
Murrin’s novel is impeccably crafted and his characterization beautifully nuanced. It’s a world the Irish-born author clearly knows well, and he gets under the skin of his three female characters, their frustrations and vulnerabilities. Men are the abusers, while the fear of scandal keeps women in check. Father Brian, Izzy’s confidant and one of the few likable male characters, is treated with suspicion by James. As Izzy notes, “You can’t even be friends with a priest, but they think you’re sleeping with him.”
Gossip damages reputations and intimacies, but Murin’s careful examination of community prejudice is laced with humor. After the town butcher, Michael Breslin, heads to Collette’s house one drunken night, the incident is closed, and Collette is cast as the scarlet woman. Izzy chides a local for her naivety: “Can you believe that … Colette let that fat idiot get on top of her?”
Murin writes insightfully about love, desire, and the limitations placed on women. While the denouement is melodramatic, it’s a compelling, compassionate page-turner.
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