ABOUT
THE BOOK

Grace Notes brings us into the life of Catherine McKenna, estranged daughter, vexed lover, new mother, and woman composer making her mark in a male-dominated profession. On the remote island of Islay she struggles for her artistic life in the midst of a relationship gone dangerously wrong. In Glasgow she gives birth to a child and receives a career-making commission from the BBC. And in her home town in Northern Ireland she returns to bury her father, forge a tentative relationship with her mother and confront the ghosts of her past. Bernard MacLaverty is a native of Northern Ireland and lives in Glasgow. He previous novels are Lamb, and Cal: Grace Notes was shortlisted for the 1997 Booker Prize.