The Mending Room

Synopsis

Some letters carry a whole life home.

Dublin, January 1943. Annie moves through her days with quiet purpose: tending the fires, cycling to her allotment, reading letters at the writing desk where she keeps a bundle tied with ribbon. The city is under the shadow of the Emergency, but in Annie’s house the greatest weight is private. Her son Alec left for Burma six years ago to work on a tea plantation, and the world he travelled to has since been consumed by war. As Annie waits for news, the novel opens outward through letters: from Alec on the Irrawaddy and in the orchid forests of the Shan States, and from his cousin Rose, a painter and naturalist, whose own account reveals the full story.

Praise for This Book

‘Fabulous. Proustian attention to detail, and shimmering language. A joy to read.’ —Donal Ryan

‘A beautifully tender portrayal of a family steeped in love but riven by separation and the breaking tides of history.’ —David Park

‘This quiet novel is beautifully observed. I found myself rereading its poetic lines, some of them utterly heart-wrenching. Amanda Bell is the gentlest of wordsmiths, moving so naturally between poetry and prose.’ —Ally Bunbury

Praise for Previous Work

‘(On Undercurrents) I can offer no higher praise of Bell’s prose than that at its best it looks and sounds positively Sebaldian, in its slightly melancholic tone and style and in its conflation of the past with the present.’ —Matthew Paul, Presence

‘(On Riptide) Moving and diverse in its range, Riptide is a sensuous and tender book.’ —Sean Hewitt, The Irish Times

‘(On The Lost Library Book) Wonderfully written and beautifully illustrated, this tale will create real book lovers! To be read and wondered over again and again.’ —Mary Esther Judy, Inis Reading Guide