Kate O'Riordan: The Memory Stones [2003] paperback

Nell, a rare female Master of Wine, enjoys an uncluttered and elegant life in Paris, sharing her days with Lulu - the cantankerous poodle her best friend bequeathed to her as a joke on her deathbed - and sharing her passion for wine with Henri, her lover and married vineyard owner. Until a phone call shatters the peace of her carefully constructed world... It is her daughter's neighbour in Ireland, with news so worrying that Nell can no longer avoid the inevitable. She must return home for the first time in over thirty years. But why has it taken Nell so long to swap the boulevards of Paris for the green fields of Western Ireland? And why didn't she even go back for her own mother's funeral? A poignant and gripping exploration of love, loss and the nature of memory itself, THE MEMORY STONES is a moving study of the intricacies of mother/daughter relationships, observed with razor-sharp precision and great tenderness.