The key to home

When Erin, a Boston native, arrives in wind-whipped Roone Bay, she's heartbroken, tired and lonely. Her marriage is over and now she's trying to build a new life on the rugged coast of Ireland. And also to unravel the story of a mysterious message in an old family bible that has haunted her since childhood. But Finn, a local historian and member of the Coast Guard, refuses her pleas for help.

So Erin settles into a town with whitewashed cottages and fishermen with wind-beaten faces and sets out to find her own way. Who was her relative Nellie and why did she leave Ireland for America? What happened to her lost daughter Annie and will Nellie ever meet her again?

Erin is beginning to lose hope of ever finding the truth when one rainy night she is rescued by Finn, who finally agrees to help her. And night after night, by firelight and candlelight, as in her great-grandmother's time, Finn and Erin grow closer as they tell each other their life stories.

But just as Erin begins to believe that Roone Bay could be her new home, she makes a startling discovery. Can she face the truth that will change everything she has ever thought about herself, her past and her family's Irish heritage? Or will she run away, like Nellie once did, and squander the greatest chance at happiness she's ever had?

It is published in the translation of Michaela Vavrušová.