Maeve Binchy

Across town from St. Jarlath’s Crescent, featured in Minding Frankie, is Chestnut Street, where neighbors come and go. Behind their closed doors we encounter very different people with different life circumstances, occupations, and sensibilities. Some of the unforgettable characters lovingly brought to life by Binchy are Bucket Maguire, the window cleaner, who must do more than he bargained for to protect his son; Nessa Byrne, whose aunt visits...

Dr. Clara Casey has been offered the thankless job of establishing the underfunded clinic and agrees to take it on for a year. She has plenty on her plate already--two difficult adult daughters and the unwanted attentions of her ex-husband--but she assembles a wonderfully diverse staff devoted to helping their demanding, often difficult patients. Before long the clinic is established as an essential part of the community, and Clara must decide whether...

When tragedy strikes the smalltown of Aghia Anna in the form of a devastating fire on a tourist pleasure boat--24 people are killed--elderly barkeeper Andreas and craft-shop owner Vonni find themselves host to a random assortment of travelers who watch the conflagration from Andreas's taverna.

Teacher Aidan Dunne, passed over for the principal's job, is instead offered a post as head of a new evening school where he somewhat assuages his dream of visiting Italy by offering classes in Italian and draws an assortment of students whose lives are all transformed by the vivacious instructor, Nora O'Donoghue.