"A Beautiful Loan is like a beautiful piece of music: true, pure, profound. Anna's quest, in mid-life, to understand herself and the forces that have shaped her thus far, moves and compels. The spirit of Camus, that humane existentialist, hovers over the novel like hope. I am filled with admiration for Mary Costello." -Claire Messud, author of This Strange Eventful History

"Mary Costello’s A Beautiful Loan creates a gripping and unsparing portrait of Anna Hughes, whose longing to find 'safety and oneness,' and to submit to love, deepens as both inner and outer worlds close in. This unsettling novel opened before me like a Rorschach test, troubling all my interpretations." -Madeleine Thien, author of The Book of Records

"An exceptional, compulsive novel of love, loss and courage. Told in poetic, clear-eyed prose, A Beautiful Loan is heart-breaking but unsentimental, and easily Costello’s best work yet." -Sinéad Gleeson, author of Constellations: Reflections from Life

"This beautiful book has a hurrying heartbeat like a drum, hurrying us toward something we can’t bear to learn. Mary Costello’s writing is rich in knowing, in yearning, in grief, in a deep understanding of the heart." -Roxana Robinson, author of Leaving