Get our Best Book Club Books of 2025 eBook!

Summary and Reviews of Tara Road by Maeve Binchy

Tara Road by Maeve Binchy

Tara Road

by Maeve Binchy
  • Critics' Consensus (6):
  • Readers' Rating (8):
  • First Published:
  • Sep 1, 1999, 502 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Jul 2000, 502 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Book Summary

A moving story rendered with the deft touch of a master artisan - utterly beautiful, hauntingly unforgettable, entirely original, and wholly enjoyable.

With each new book, Maeve Binchy continues a remarkable progression of sales and audience growth, reaching fans of all ages and backgrounds with her matchless wit, warmth, and sheer storytelling magic. Tara Road, her first full-length novel since The Glass Lake, again shows her incomparable understanding of the human heart in the tale of two women, one from Ireland, one from America, who switch lives, and in doing so learn much about each other, as well as much about themselves.

Ria lived on Tara Road in Dublin with her dashing husband, Danny, and their two children. She fully believed she was happily married, right up until the day Danny told her he was leaving her to be with his young, pregnant girlfriend. By a chance phone call, Ria meets Marilyn, a woman from New England unable to come to terms with her only son's death and now separated from her husband. The two women exchange houses for the summer with extraordinary consequences, each learning that the other has a deep secret that can never be revealed.

Drawn into lifestyles vastly differing from their own, at first each resents the news of how well the other is getting on. Ria seems to have become quite a hostess, entertaining half the neighborhood, which at first irritates the reserved and withdrawn Marilyn, a woman who has always guarded her privacy. Marilyn seems to have become bosom friends with Ria's children, as well as with Colm, a handsome restaurateur, whom Ria has begun to miss terribly. At the end of the summer, the women at last meet face-to-face. Having learned a great deal, about themselves and about each other, they find that they have become, firmly and forever, good friends.

A moving story rendered with the deft touch of a master artisan, Tara Road is Maeve Binchy at her very best--utterly beautiful, hauntingly unforgettable, entirely original, and wholly enjoyable.

Excerpt
Tara Road

Ria's mother had always been very fond of film stars. It was a matter of sadness to her that Clark Gable had died on the day Ria was born. Tyrone Power had died on the day Hilary had been born just two years earlier. But somehow that wasn't as bad. Hilary hadn't seen off the great king of cinema as Ria had. Ria could never see Gone With the Wind without feeling somehow guilty.

She told this to Ken Murray, the first boy who kissed her. She told him in the cinema. Just as he was kissing her, in fact.

"You're very boring," he said, trying to open her blouse.

"I'm not boring," Ria cried with some spirit. "Clark Gable is there on the screen and I've told you something interesting. A coincidence. It's not boring."

Ken Murray was embarrassed, as so much attention had been called to them. People were shushing them and others were laughing. Ken moved away and huddled down in his seat as if he didn't want to be seen with her.

Ria...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

The New York Times
A remarkably gifted writer.

The New York Times
A remarkably gifted writer.

The Washington Post
Reading one of Maeve Binchy's novels is like coming home.

USA Today
Tara Road is good storytelling...Binchy's books are big, her boys are backsliders, her heroines are spirited.

Wall Street Journal
Engrossing...hard to put down...a saga of love, sex, money and intrigue.

Wall Street Journal
Engrossing...hard to put down...a saga of love, sex, money and intrigue.

Reader Reviews

Valentina

a page-turner book
Despite the huge amount of pages you will reach the end in a while with a strong desire to keep on reading.
~*Rachel*~

Tara Road was an AMAZING book
Maeve Binchy has captured the timeless struggles of modern mom and the selfishness of men and put it into an amazing book of hardship and change. This is one of my all time favorites!!
Betül

It makes you read it all the time till you finish.
Judy Harrington

This was my first book read by me by Maeve Binchy and I am anxiously awaiting the reading of many more. She is the most wonderful author and really draws one into the complex lives of her characters.

Write your own review!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked Tara Road, try these:

  • Down River jacket

    Down River

    by John Hart

    Published 2008

    About this book

    More by this author

    After being narrowly acquitted of a murder charge, Adam Chase is hounded out of the only home he’s ever known, exiled for a sin he did not commit. For five long years he disappears. Now he’s back and nobody knows why, not his family or the cops, not the enemies he left behind.

  • Cover The Butter jacket

    Cover The Butter

    by Carrie Kabak

    Published 2006

    About this book

    Buoyant and deeply moving, Cover the Butter proves that starting over has nothing to do with age and everything to do with spirit.

We have 5 read-alikes for Tara Road, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
More books by Maeve Binchy
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    Real Americans
    by Rachel Khong
    From the author of Goodbye, Vitamin, a novel exploring family, identity, and the shaping of destiny.
  • Book Jacket
    The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris
    by Evie Woods
    From the million-copy bestselling author of The Lost Bookshop.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    The Fairbanks Four
    by Brian Patrick O’Donoghue

    One murder, four guilty convictions, and a community determined to find justice.

  • Book Jacket

    Happy Land
    by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

    From the New York Times bestselling author, a novel about a family's secret ties to a vanished American Kingdom.

  • Book Jacket

    The Seven O'Clock Club
    by Amelia Ireland

    Four strangers join an experimental treatment to heal broken hearts in Amelia Ireland's heartfelt debut novel.

  • Book Jacket

    One Death at a Time
    by Abbi Waxman

    A cranky ex-actress and her Gen Z sobriety sponsor team up to solve a murder that could send her back to prison in this dazzling mystery.

Who Said...

A library is a temple unabridged with priceless treasure...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

A C on H S

and be entered to win..