ROAD TRIP

After their mother’s death, two sisters from Savannah, Georgia, set off on a road trip in Ireland to research their family’s roots.

Maeve and Therese Dunagin are not close—in fact, they find it hard to spend any time together without arguing. Therese, an actress, has always been footloose and fancy-free, while often relying on money that her mother sent her. Maeve, on the other hand, held tight control of her life, with a full-time job as a college professor, a house, and a carefully plotted-out life. Then, when their mother, Mary Helen, dies, they’re shocked to discover there’s nothing for them to inherit except a painting that’s always hung over her fireplace—it’s supposedly a portrait of an aristocratic Irish ancestor—and a coffee can stuffed with cash she’s saved for years so the sisters could travel to Ireland and reconnect. They learn that as their mother slid into dementia, she emptied her savings account and remortgaged her house to send hundreds of thousands of dollars to a slick televangelist. Neither sister—both single—is interested in the road trip. But then Maeve is laid off from her job and the pair have no reason not to take the trip their mother had long saved for. The book covers two parallel stories—that of their great-grandmother Kathleen Connor, who left Ireland in 1926, and the sisters’ trip to Ireland to research their family. The result is a cozy romp that touches lightly on multiple genres to spin an intriguing tale: murder mystery, IRA art heist, coming-to-America immigrant story, justice for elder financial abuse, dual rom-com narratives, and an earnest story of two sisters learning to appreciate each other again.

A delightful tale with vivid characters.