The Piano Boat

Rural Ireland, 1987 – Ruairí’s days are full of football, roaming the fields with his friends and helping his grandmother in their shop. When, for his eleventh birthday, his parents get him his own racing bike and take him to meet his cycling hero, Stephen Roche, he thinks he couldn’t be any happier.

But soon after they return home, life takes a dark turn. Following a tragic accident, nothing seems to matter to Ruairí any more – he has no time for school or sport or his old friends.

When help finally comes, it’s from an unexpected source, in the shape of Briege, a grieving woman who has come to live in a houseboat on the local lake.

Gentle yet powerful, The Piano Boat tells the story of how two very different people find their way from grief and darkness back to hope, together. This was such a good book. To be read by the beach or in the garden. Let this story take you away for a few hours of reading bliss.

What a beautiful read.
Ruairí has a normal, quiet life in rural Ireland until tragedy strikes just after his eleventh birthday. And then things fall apart for him - nothing is the same anymore and his life unravels. There is no-one to help him figure things out and deal with the emotions he has until he meets the stranger on the boat - who he has been told to stay away from! And slowly but surely things start to fall in place and he develops a greater understanding as to how to deal with his emotions and things come back together in a new way.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me the chance to read this book.

A hard read in places but I thought that the grief the family went through was well written and very thoughtful.
The freedom of the boys was so true back in the 80s. The characters were all so believable.
This was my first book by this author, but really want to read more books by Terry Hickland
Thank you NetGalley