The Connellys of County Down

Two years ago, I loved Tracey Lange’s debut novel, We Are the Brennans. When I learned that she had a new book coming out, I could hardly wait. The Connellys of County Down follows another complicated Irish-American family working through tough circumstances, and it’s equally as impactful as its predecessor.  

Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Summary

Tara Connelly has just gotten out of prison, returning home to live with her sister, her brother, and his son. It will take some time for Tara to rebuild her life, but her siblings also have some adjusting to do with her back. Already in a delicate state, these siblings will need to face past mistakes and secrets in order to heal together, but it will take some time for them to learn to trust each other again. 

Review

I’m not sure what it is, but Tracey Lange has a way of writing about themes and subjects I’m not normally drawn to and making them truly captivating. She did it with We Are the Brennans two years ago, and she’s done it again with her poignant new novel, The Connellys of County Down. 

On the surface, her two books have much in common. Both are about Irish-American families living in suburban New York, adult sibling relationships, and righting past mistakes. Both highlight ordinary people in difficult situations and finding a path forward despite it all. While I normally run away from books about lower class families in small towns (it cuts too close to my own childhood), Tracey Lange writes in a way that feels comfortable, familiar, and heartfelt.  

The Connellys of County Down focuses on four characters: the three Connelly siblings, plus police officer Brian Nolan. In the months that follow Tara’s release from prison, all four of them will be affected by the past and faced with new hurdles to overcome. 

Geraldine, Eddie, and Tara are such different siblings. Their mother died when they were young, and their father left when Tara was only 12. Geraldine, the eldest at 19, was old enough to keep their small family together, working hard to support her younger siblings through school. As adults in their 30s, they still live together and rely on one another. Geraldine still is orderly and likes to be in control. For much of the novel, I found Geraldine hard to like, even if I felt empathy for how she had to take care of her two siblings at such a young age. Eddie was in a car crash at 14, leaving him with a traumatic brain injury that continues to have effects on his daily life; he’s also a single father to 10-year-old Conor. I liked Eddie and felt empathy for him, too, and how his TBI makes work difficult. Conor is a delight, always ready with a joke and a smile. Tara, formerly an art teacher, did 18 months for a drug trafficking charge. She’s opinionated and impulsive, but she’d do anything for her family. Then there’s Brian: the officer who got Tara into prison in the first place… but has regretted it ever since. 

More than anything, The Connellys of County Down is about sibling relationships and all the messy parts that make up the whole. We see the kinds of sacrifices each sibling has made for each other, and what kinds of sacrifices they’re willing to continue making. For all their disagreements, they also work hard to lift each other up, whether that’s seeking therapy for a closet hoarder or helping a sister with a record get her life back on track. But can the three Connellys fully trust each other again, after all that’s happened?

Another storyline in this book is the tentative relationship between Tara and Brian. They start off knowing the worst of each other, yet they still find something in each other to continue exploring. Theirs is an unlikely relationship, and it puts Tara into some tricky situations, but it can ultimately be healing for both. A couple of times, the two of them go to the Brennans’ pub, a nice little Easter egg fo those who’ve read the previous novel. When Tara and Brian have an argument at the end of chapter 20, it leaves us on my favorite line in the book: “The most honest words didn’t have to be loud or dramatic to cut deep.” 

The Connellys of County Down gets its name from the fairy tale the Connellys’ mother used to tell them. It’s a heart-rending thread throughout the novel: their Irish heritage, the magic of storytelling and family values, and the forgotten superpowers each sibling had as children and hopefully still has in adulthood.

Audiobook

Barrie Kreinik does a marvelous job of bringing the characters to life in the audiobook version of The Connellys of County Down. Like the book itself, her narration is gentle but incisive. Each character feels vivid and unique through her subtle voice acting, making the whole audiobook a joy to listen to from start to finish. 

Final Thoughts

The Connellys of County Down is a tender, raw, and beautiful portrait of an ordinary, complicated family. It strikes me in a way that few books quite achieve, and this a story that will stay with me. Tracey Lange may be my favorite author of contemporary fiction, and I look forward to reading every new book she publishes in the coming years. 

Get the Book

You can buy The Connellys of County Down here – it’s available as a hardcover, ebook, and audiobook.

The Connellys of County Down by Tracey Lange
Audiobook Narrator	Barrie Kreinik
Audience	Adult
Genre	Contemporary Fiction; Literary Fiction
Setting	New York
Book Length	9.3 hours; 288 pages
Format I Read	Audiobook (NetGalley)
Original Publication Date	August 1, 2023

Official Summary

From Tracey Lange, the New York Times bestselling author of We Are the Brennans, comes The Connellys of County Down: a story about fierce family loyalty, good intentions gone awry, and the consequences of improbable love.

When Tara Connelly is released from prison after serving eighteen months on a drug charge, she knows rebuilding her life at thirty years old won’t be easy. With no money and no prospects, she returns home to live with her siblings, who are both busy with their own problems. Her brother, a single dad, struggles with the ongoing effects of a brain injury he sustained years ago, and her sister’s fragile facade of calm and order is cracking under the burden of big secrets. Life becomes even more complicated when the cop who put her in prison keeps showing up unannounced, leaving Tara to wonder what he wants from her now.

While she works to build a new career and hold her family together, Tara finds a chance at love in a most unlikely place. But when the Connellys’ secrets start to unravel and threaten her future, they all must face their worst fears and come clean, or risk losing each other forever.

The Connellys of County Down is a moving novel about testing the bounds of love and loyalty. It explores the possibility of beginning our lives anew, and reveals the pitfalls of shielding each other from the bitter truth.