You know, opening up the front cover of a new book is like slipping your head under a Circus tent for a look at what’s going on inside. If you like what you see you might stay and maybe even buy some candyfloss on the way home after the performance. So when I had a look under Nora Webster's tent, it absorbed me enough to make me see it through, but I didn’t hang around afterwards for candyfloss; I just went straight home. This novel did not move me in any great way. Nora Webster is an inoffensive read, written in plain prose, character driven, a little like John Banville only less cerebral. Essentially it gives us an insight into one woman’s grief and her struggle to survive it. The story follows the dull everyday life of a recently widowed mother of four living in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford. Nora is a difficult character to reconcile: we meet a meek and unassuming character, dealing with sympathisers calling to her home, at the start of the book; a surprisingly assertive Nora back in the workforce; a force of nature with the religious head of Conor’s school; shy and timid with her music teacher Laurie; faltering with Dr. & Mrs. Radford; intimidated by her daughters and distant from her sons. I just couldn’t read her or relate. That said, I did look forward to going to bed to pick up the story where I’d left off but only in anticipation of the twist, the climax, the big reveal - that never came. It was a disappointing end. Would I recommend this book? Yes: for its deep scrutiny of the grieving process; its exploration of the silence that loss creates and the reality that the death of a family member does not always bring that family closer together. I've not been discouraged from reading more of this Irish novelist however, I have another Colm Tobin waiting in the wings - The Blackwater Lightship - and am very much looking forward to that one.