Home Stretch by Graham Norton

When I picked up a new novel, Home Stretch by Graham Norton, I had no idea the author was a television celebrity until I was well into this wonderful book. The only thing I knew about Graham Norton was an advertisement for his talk show, a man in a purple suit, interviewing people I’d never heard of. In my ignorance, if I’d known he was the author I’d probably not have picked up the book, and missed reading a really good novel, and discovering a very talented writer.

Graham Norton, the stage name for Graham William Walker, was born in Ireland in 1963. And it is Ireland that is the setting for most of the novel, Home Stretch, and it is the changes that took place in Ireland over the past generation that the characters in the novel live with.

The novel opens in a small town, with a traffic accident involving the deaths of several young people, the injury of others, and the blame and guilt and grief that follows. We meet the young people involved, and their parents and families as they are told of the accident and of the deaths.

These are people who we can immediately relate to, understand their lives and their grief. There are parents and surviving siblings, and others whose only child is gone. Years pass, young people grow up and move on with their lives, as do all.

We meet one young man who has left Ireland, knowing that he is gay he knows he cannot continue to live in a place where he is not accepted. As so many young men did then, he went first to England and then to the United States. All the while keeping secret the truth of the accident that changed the lives of so many. Another young man marries, a marriage founded on deceit and secrets.

Parents age, children age, grandchildren are born and become adults. And, even Ireland changes with the vote in 2015 to allow gay marriage. Something that seemed impossible to the young people involved in a traffic accident in 1987.

Once again this is a novel that is difficult to review as I do not want to spoil the discovery of the story you will enjoy as you read Home Stretch. I can only say, I loved it, and have now read Graham Norton’s two earlier novels and have no hesitation in recommending them all.