Home Stretch is the story of a tragic accident in a small town in Ireland which changes the lives of three families and sets them on a new course.
Connor is behind the wheel of the car that goes off the road. The car is filled with teenagers the day before a wedding, the bride and groom both amongst those killed in the crash. Connor walks away from the accident but not from what he’s done.
Connor’s parents and his sister Ellen find they have gone from being a loved part of the community to the family of the boy who caused the crash. Life stops. The pub they run becomes very empty and they are asked to keep Connor from attending the funeral.
The whole town is rocked by the crash and grief is open and raw in the coming weeks. Everyone is waiting for justice to come and for Connor to be punished for what he has done. When he escapes jail time no one wants to say aloud that it’s not enough. That life can’t go back to what it was before. And so Connor leaves to work on a building site in Liverpool to spare everyone from seeing him and being reminded of it all. His parents are devastated. Another family with an absent son.
What follows in the rest of the book is the years that pass. The story jumps ahead several times which I wasn’t expecting and parts of the story were told from the perspective of different people but it really works. You feel like you’re hearing the life stories of the characters as they age and grow and how people change their minds on things they thought they were sure on. It’s very clever.
I enjoyed the different perspectives in the book and it opened up lots of different people’s stories. There’s a remarkable lack of blame at times, especially from some of the narrators and the author. It’s not a judgemental story or an overly sad one. It just highlights how sometimes things just happen and it’s not always someone’s fault and there’s not always anything that can be done about it. A great insight into people and guilt and shame and into families. A look at how things from our youth and the way we perceive how other people see us can shape our relationships and how we see the world. It’s sophisticated story telling.
If you’ve not read a book by Graham Norton before I recommend it. I’ve read a few now and have enjoyed each one. They are love letters to Ireland and Norton uses his empathy and observation to make a story feel realistic. He’s a very talented writer.
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