Protection

Gillian has achieved success and a degree of fame as the founder of a self-help retreat for high-achievers who want to �decelerate�. Her husband, Damien, is the public face of a new heritage village that attempts to re-create 1950s Ireland. Their teenage daughter, Heather, dyes her face blue and is addicted to the Dystopia Channel. She is the least of their problems. When Gillian�s beloved aunt Grace, who raised her following the sudden death of both her parents, succumbs to Alzheimer�s, Gillian feels dismayingly cut off from her past. In grief and confusion, she starts taking an experimental drug that is believed to sharpen memory � with unexpected results. Meanwhile, Damien�s village becomes a magnet for media ridicule. As he tries to defend himself and his work, he wonders if his increasingly remote wife is on his side. He knows that Gillian had a brief affair a few years ago with a former workmate. He doesn�t know that she has just re-established contact with him � At once richly comic, socially observant, and deeply moving, Protection is a thrilling first novel about love, loss, memory and forgiveness among ordinary people in a place � contemporary Ireland � that is stranger than they know.