Marble Gardens: A moving tale of friendship, marriage and motherhood - Tapa blanda

Sophie and Riba have known each other since childhood. Though they couldn't be more different - Sophie is elegant and diffident, while Riba is flamboyantly extrovert - the bond between them seems unbreakable. Then Riba's teenaged daughter Zelda falls gravely ill. Frustrated by the limitations of conventional medicine, Riba pins all her hopes on alternative methods. Sophie is torn between her loyalty to her friend and her fear that Zelda, whom she loves like the child she cannot have, will not get the help she desperately needs. United in their distress, Sophie and Riba's husband Brian find themselves drawn to each other. Time is running out for Zelda, for two marriages, and for a friendship...

Deirdre Purcell was born and brought up in Dublin, and educated there and in a County Mayo convent. Before turning to the writing of fiction, she lived through an eclectic set of careers, including acting, as a member of the permanent company of Ireland's National Theatre (The Abbey), and journalism for all media - for which she won Ireland's top awards.