Apart from the Crowd

June 9, 2008
McPartlin’s second novel (after Pack Up the Moon
) follows the unlikely story of two tormented people who come together in a small Irish town. Mary has survived the deaths of her mother, her first love and her five-year-old son, earning her the nickname “Mary of the Sorrows” from the residents of Kenmare, Ireland. When Sam Sullivan, a music executive from New York, moves in next door, the town would like nothing more than for handsome Sam to bring her happiness. Mary, however, is happy to keep things as they are and tend to her best friend Penny, recently brokenhearted and turning to drink, and Ivan, her cousin who is lonesome after his wife left him. Sam isn’t looking for love either. Instead, he has traveled to his grandmother’s birthplace seeking refuge from his demons. Despite their best efforts, Mary and Sam grow close, and through their friendship they find the strength to build their lives again. McPartlin presents a realistic and complex story of love in its many forms without piling on the melodrama, and an unexpected conclusion helps elevate this sophomore outing.

June 1, 2008
New Yorker Sam Sullivan is arecovering heroin addict fresh out of rehab and craving a new start. He decides to honor his grandmother and visit her hometown of Kenmare, an Irish fishing village. He tries to keep to himself and keep his drug habit under wraps, but in a small town where everyone knows everyone else, Sam soon learns that hes not the only one with a dark past--the residents all harbor their own personal tragedies, his new neighbor Mary in particular. After her mothers death in childbirth, the car wreck that killed her boyfriend and put her in a coma, and the freak accident that killed her son, the townspeople took to calling her Mary of the Sorrows. Despite their solitary natures, Sam and Mary are drawn to each other, and as time passes they begin to open up about their pasts--but doing so may reveal secrets even more sinister than they suspected. McPartlin presents a painfully honest tale about the importance of friends, family, healing, and shared bonds.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)