Ghost Moth

May 6, 2013
Personal and political turmoil erupt in the life of Irish housewife Katherine Bedford during the summer of 1969 in Forbes's powerful debut novel. When she nearly drowns on a family outing to the beach, Katherine is haunted by the memory of an old lover, which she has "blotted out throughout her married life but never gone away." Memories of her lover, Tom, a tailor she met while performing amateur opera on the eve of her engagement to her husband, George, draw Katherine inward and she finds herself detaching from her family. Her inner conflicts unfold against the background of violent riots in Northern Ireland, where Catholicsâincluding Katherine's young daughtersâare victims of heinous crimes. Forbes elegantly weaves in narrative from 20 years prior when Katherine first meets Tom, who ignites an electrifying passion within her, a feeling she doesn't get from George who approaches life as "a series of tasks that had to be done" with his characteristic "sullen determination". Through her richly imagined characters, Forbes depicts a fully human and flawed relationship between two people with their own desires, memories, and secrets.

June 1, 2013

It's August 1969, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and the heat and sectarian violence are oppressive. Catholic couple Katherine and George Bedford are living in a staid Protestant neighborhood and struggling to preserve their fragile marriage. As shootings and bombings tear apart the city, George and Katherine are brought back together. Meanwhile, their four children must absorb the various pressures shaping their existence. By the novel's end, all the Bedfords are at once haunted and affirmed by the past, especially middle daughter Elsa, who most fully senses the possibilities in the liminal spaces between land and sea, past and present, and life and death. VERDICT Belfast-born Forbes debuts a gemlike novel. Rare and luminescent, her storytelling is deliberate in its unfolding. Readers will marvel at the subtle embroidering of folk stories such as the Selkie wife and Briar Rose into the Bedfords's narrative. Fans of Anne Enright's fiction will admire a similar brilliance in this work.--John G. Matthews, Washington State Univ. Libs., Pullman

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2013
Forbes' debut novel is set in two erasBelfast at the 1969 advent of the IRA's campaign to get Great Britain out of Northern Ireland and in post-WWII 1949and depicts the life of Katherine from early young adulthood through marriage and motherhood. The novel begins with the idyllic, if deceptive, picture of a loving marriage and stable family life on a rare day at the beach. A shattering argument between Katherine and her husband, George Bellows, ends the day, revealing layers of stress beneath a serene surface. As the story unfolds, readers will revel in the skillful writing: parallel narratives slowly reveal the secrets that both bind and separate husband and wife. The complex plot maintains suspense and reader interest as well as framing the deterioration of the marriage. Strong characterization presents a fully developed family, not just revealing Katherine and George but also all four children. Lyrical descriptions create a believable contrast, depicting Belfast in very different historical eras. Genre fans (Irish-history buffs, family-story readers, historical-fiction enthusiasts) will enjoy this novel, while its stylistic richness and narrative intricacy will also please readers of literary fiction. Highly recommended.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)