A bleak farm in Northern Ireland, an unmarried mother (or two), The characters are complex, flawed and fascinating women, there are many secrets and lies. Witty and well written.

“Grief is a room… We think we can escape it. We’ve locked it and walked away a hundred times, a thousand times, but the slightest nudge will have the door springing open and try as we might we still have to walk through it. The dark inside it beckons. Its ceilings are high and the walls are miles apart and the feel of it never changes. Its detail never fades, the edges only ever get sharper, the air thicker and harder to breathe.“

There was a time when Lindy Morris escaped to London and life was full and exciting. Decades later, she lives with her Auntie Bell on the edge of Donegal and on the edge of Granda Morris's land. Granda Morris is a complicated man, one who wanted sons but got two daughters, of which one disappeared long ago.
Now, Lindy and Bell live the smallest of lives with unfulfilled dreams. But when the secrets they have kept for thirty years emerge, everything is rewritten. Will Lindy grasp who she is again?

The book’s rural setting amidst a severely dysfunctional family is the heart of this story. Delaney’s lyrical prose brings raw emotion to the surface. She brings in the Irishness in her use of the vernacular which adds a unique flavour to her writing. As heart-breaking as the book is, she lifts it with her sharp wit and whimsical humour.

A story that will trigger a range of emotions within you, it will continue to enthrall you with the resilience of women in the face of adversity and have you completely under its spell right till the end.

This ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Cornerstone.

The Saint of Lost Things by Tish Delaney is a wonderful story of an Irish farmer’s family life with the miserable vicious old grandfather and Auntie Bell and Lindy left living in two separate houses., Southfork and Carnsore. It is a story of life with secrets and lies and illegitimate children. There is the gossiping women and the Catholic faith that binds them all together. It is a hard life that the women live and it is only at the end that they finally have some respite.
Highly recommended

This is the first Tish Delaney book I have read and now I can’t understand why this amazing author hasn’t been recommended to me before. The plot is fascinating, imaginative, emotional and funny and I would doubt anyone who said they guessed some of the twists. The characters are perfect every last one. I don’t mean perfect characters but drawn perfectly and I loved and hated them as I was supposed to.
I have no criticisms and am amazed at any readers who failed to give it a five star review

I have sung the praises of Delaney's first novel, Before My Actual Heart Breaks on my Booktube channel so many times since I read it last year. It touched me so deeply and I thought it was beautiful. So when I saw she had another book out already, I was nervous. Could she possibly break me all over again, so soon?

Well, no. But only very slightly no. Before My Actual Heart Breaks had me sobbing, so deeply did that story resonate with me. The only reason The Saint of Lost Things didn't do the same was that I felt more objective when reading this one. And for that reason, this is still an utterly fantastic book as I was able to absorb the story without feeling punched in the gut (too much...).

Lindy Morris is living a very small life, exiled to the edge of her abusive grandfather's land in an ugly bungalow with her aging aunt. At every turn she is reminded of what a burden she has been to her family, and the tapestry of her life is strewn with rips and holes. An illegitimate child born into a staunchly Catholic community, when she loses her mother at a young age she is left to the mercies of a cold and unforgiving family. Escaping to London as a young woman was meant to be Lindy's freedom from them, but now in middle-age she is trapped back on the farm, haunted by her past.

So, not a cheery story. But Lindy is the bright light of this book, distracting us from her secrets with wit and pithiness that makes the truth of her story all the more heartbreaking when it is revealed. I loved her, I wanted the best for her, and I hated those who didn't see her worth. Delaney is so good at creating characters that may not always be perfect, but who always get right into your heart. And she can write the most awful, nasty characters too. I was also once again struck by her ability to create a sense of place, and with it a sense of claustrophobia.

I think this book has more in terms of plot than Before My Actual Heart Breaks. We meet Lindy in the present day - we know that she's had mental health struggles, and that her aunt holds it against her that she's had to raise and care for her after her mother died. But we don't really know why Lindy is the way she is until we start delving into her backstory, and the book is told over those two timelines. Lindy's story is much sadder than that of Mary from Before My Actual Heart Breaks, but this book doesn't feel as bleak. A big part of that reason is Lindy herself - she's quite a funny character, so there is that light and shade.

Delaney has fast become one of my favourite authors, and I can't wait to see how she next choses to reduce me to tears. If you haven't yet read her, but have enjoyed authors like Claire Fuller, then I can't recommend her enough.

This one is a 3.5 stars from me.

Lindy and auntie Bell are outcast to the furthest outskirts of Granda Morris's beloved Southfork estate. Lindy, now in her fifties, had a life once. Once upon a time, she managed to be like her mother and grab life by its horns for a chance to escape the Morrises toxic family dynamics. But Lindy returns to Ballyglen, Ireland, after what happened in London and remained ever since until the past came down calling. For so many reasons, Lindy was always the Wrong Child. She was the wrong sex and came from the wrong father and Granda Morris never let her forget that. She wasn't allowed to live like an ordinary child. She wasn't even allowed to grieve for her dead mother. So she carried on, a bundle of grief and shame.

"Grief is a room. Someone helpful told me that at the Clinic. we think we can escape it. We've locked it and walked away a hundred times, a thousand times, but the slightest nudge will have the door springing open and try as we might we still have to walk through it, The dark inside it beckons. Its ceilings are high and the walls are miles apart and the feel of it never changes. Its detail never fades, the edges only ever get sharper, the air thicker and harder to breathe."


To be honest I had a hard time getting into the book at the beginning. It was an unforgiving introduction to life in rural Ireland. Maybe this was done on purpose. But the emphasis on the dysfunctional family atmosphere instead of the characters made it difficult for me as a reader. In the first twenty pages or so I had to do a lot of guesswork about Lindy since I was swamped with minutiae of her life. There was a huge lump of literature before the story moved to 18-year-old Lindy and the story started to take shape. The chapters became mostly shorter and the time shifts were better paced.

To the author's credit, this book reminded me a lot of Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller, a book I very much loved. Despite being a literary fiction, the writing wasn't in any way pretentious. The wording befits a woman in rural Ireland trying to make the days goes by with minimal friction with the belligerent family patriarch. Here's a gem of writing (if you've been following my reviews enough, you'd know how much I love to share these lines that strike my insides):
"How does a woman who gives up a baby look? Just like a woman but with a chunk missing, a wound that no one can see, a wound that never heals but rots and leaves its poison in every corner you turn your face to."

So you see, the language isn't lofty, but practical. I just wished the plot was as practical and didn't hang onto as many descriptive passages as it did.

Many thanks to Random House UK, Cornerstone, Hutchinson Heinemann and NetGalley for my eARC.

This is a beautifully pitched and finely balanced read, the tone is quite dark and at times feels unrelentingly sad - but there are sharp sparks of humour despite the emotional trauma.

We meet Lindy Morris who is in her 50s - life seems to have been hard for her and over the course of the book we learn just how hard and where her low self esteem and poor opinion of herself has come from. Her family dynamics are heartbreaking and at times it feels like too much to keep going - the drip, drip drip of information and observations slowly reveals to the reader the layer upon layer of guilt, pain, expectation, regrets all interwoven and keeping the characters fixed in their interminable relationship loops.

Despite how bleak the story feels at times, there is still joy to be found - Lindy still has a sense of humour (albeit a dark and fairly twisted one) and a keen sense of observation. She may look and feel broken, but she has spark and it still burns brightly inside where she can keep it safe.

There is respite from the oppressive feeling when we go back to the 80s and learn about Lindy's time in London as a student - she definitely makes the most of her time there and it is nice to see her forge friendships and feel like she fits in for the first time in her life.

The story is beautifully told and the detailed descriptions throughout give a vivid feel of time and also place. Tish Delaney is a very talented writer - and the ending is incredibly satisfying!

Having read Tish Delaney's previous novel Before My Actual Heart Breaks, I knew that I was going to be in for deeply emotional read and I wasn't wrong.

The Saint of Lost Things follows the story of Lindy, who grew up in an abusive Catholic household in Northern Ireland, where all the women in the family were scared and traumatised by the patriachal figure and she was no different. The way the story unfolds, starting at the present and going back and forth to the past, you know that she doesn't manage to escape, which for me, made it difficult to keep picking the book back up again. Reading it I felt as defeated as she did, BUT there were some rays of hope in there, her enmeshed life with her Aunt Bell whilst most of the time was toxic, did show in the end the trauma bond that they shared.

If you are looking for a happy ever after type story, this isn't it but if you appreciate a good storyteller, then give this a go.

I enjoyed this book. I was definitely hooked. It was different to a normal read for me but I'm glad I read it.

Thank you Hutchinson Heinmann and Netgalley for this review copy.

I love Delaney's work, as a Northern Irish gal myself - I can't get enough of stories written here. And Delaney is so captivating with writing my beloved home. This is a darkly wry tale sometimes, and something I feel that people outside of Northern Ireland maybe view a bit differently (based on some other reviews), while exploring the duty of care and Irish familial relationships. Loved this and Delaney's previous work, will be buying all her work!

“No one can help you grieve, it’s a traditionally lonesome activity.”

In all honesty, I have a whole notebook of highlighted quotes from this wonderful new novel by Tish Delaney. It was hard to narrow down to only a few.

Tish Delaney is definitely a booksta inspired author, one I might not have read, but for this wonderful place. I read and adored Before My Actual Heart Breaks, so it was a no brainer to pick this one up. I can confidently say, Ms Delaney is now an auto-buy author and firm favourite.

Told seamlessly in duel timelines - In the present and 1980’s London. We follow Lindy Morris, now in her 50’s living in a remote village in Northern Ireland with her scornful Auntie Bell. They rely on their misogynistic and condescending Granda Morris for the roof over their heads and unsolicited opinions. I whole heartedly sympathised with Lindy, being belittled and considered worthless her whole life, she invariably battles her own self worth and self doubt. Through her authentic, flawed character, Lindy uses her “freaky deaky” smile, keen observations, sharp wit and sarcasm to narrate herself.

This is a beautiful story of loss, grief, redemption and hope. It will captivate your heart from the onset. Through sadness and abandonment issues, we are also shown Lindy’s darkly humorous side through Irish colloquialisms and eccentric phrases. It will have you laughing out loud and crying in equal measures. Told with wonderful, lyrical prose, the first person narrative of Lindy was written superbly, I could’t help but adore her.

Not much I can say about THAT ending, but Wow!!
An absolute all the five stars from me!

After reading Delaney’s <i><a href=https://www.book-odyssey.com/2020/10/book-82.html>Before My Actual Heart Breaks</a></i>, I considered her marvel. The raw emotion and trauma she depicted was something I remembered and carried with me for a while. Her evocative insight into the expectations set upon those born into devout Northern Irish families was acute, and I was looking forward to seeing what she’d bring forth next.

<i>The Saint of Lost Things</i> brings us back to all of these things, and definitely not with a softer hand. Lindy, born out of wedlock, lives with her aunt on her grandfather’s farm. He builds them a home at the furthest possible point from his own, as women cannot be trusted, will cause irritation, and are, as we will see, an embarrassment to him.

Throughout the novel we navigate Lindy’s complex family dynamic, and so very slowly, at the speed of a delectable dribble, we come to understand the reason for the varying emotions amongst them. Complex probably isn’t enough of a word - there are so many layers of historical regret, pain, guilt and hatred to work through - Lindy has been condemned her entire life.

Delaney’s characters have been perfectly carved. Entirely flawed, completely relatable, and utterly utterly recognisable, they augment the plot with incredible life. Whilst they behave in predictable ways based on how we’ve come to view them, we also see them take action entirely beyond anything we expected. It’s just life; it’s just people. I adored them all for their realities.

And despite the almost unrelenting bleakness and misery Delaney presents us with here, there is real joy in these pages. As Lindy narrates the turmoils of her life, we see a witty and sarcastic woman before us. Yes, she’s imprisoned in a life she didn’t choose, but by god she makes us love her for her story.

Another triumph here to solidify my reckoning that Delaney is a master at her craft. Everything delicately placed, everything perfectly true. I adored this book.

Having enjoyed Tish Delaney’s debut novel last year, I was intrigued enough to give this new one a go. As with Before My Actual Heart Breaks, Delaney plays to her strengths here: haunting and lovely descriptions of her settings (in this case primarily rural Northern Ireland between the 60s and the recent present) and complicated female characters traumatised by the rigorous restrictions imposed upon their lives by the horrible patriarchal and Catholic structures of their society. The themes here are somewhat similar as in her first novel, with unwed motherhood and familial abuse playing a central part, but the overall tone is a lot darker, as the main character, Lindy, seems inescapably trapped in a never-ending cycle of abuse and emotional trauma. There are a few pockets of lightness and joy – I enjoyed the few friendships Lindy manages to forge along the way, along with her brief and riotous escape to London in the 1980s – but an uplifting story this is not, with multiple generations of the same family succumbing to decades-long misogynist misery imposed by their dreadful patriarch.

The book is saved from unrelenting misery by Lindy’s voice, which despite her dreary life is marked by a certain wicked humour (by necessity often skewing quite dark) and self-irony; no matter how grim things got, I quite enjoyed her POV. The non-linear structure was initially confusing, as the first part goes on for quite a while, teasing and hinting at reveals that take a long time to materialise. There’s more momentum in the 1980s storyline and I wish it had come into play sooner; with the structure being as it is, it automatically forestalls any real hope for the younger Lindy, as you already know her current situation.

In a nutshell: Accomplished, authentic, atmospheric, but hella bleak.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Saint of Lost Things by Tish Delaney.

This one was a slow burn and quite a slow read for me. I did find myself reluctant to pick it up at times yet was engrossed when I did. A dark and melancholic read with some cracks of light. The beautiful prose kept me reading. Tish Delaney is a wonderful writer . I didn't love the story but absolutely adored how it was written and the descriptions and vivid sense of place. I think I would possibly get more from this on a second read and will buy this in paperback ( the cover is beautiful) and will also recommend.
I have a copy of Delaney's first book, Before My Actual Heart Breaks beside my bed for over a year now and have never got around to reading it. I am definitely going to now as I enjoyed her writing so much.

Overall a 4 star read for me.

Perfectly pitched novel by Delaney who builds on her debut with style and aplomb. Northern Ireland explodes onto the page in every sentence as Lindy’s life is depicted in all its earthy tones. Immense.

'She is a tuning fork that has been bashed on the table's edge, her agitation reverberating around the eight-foot-square walls. I am all serenity. I smile and go back to my work.'

Lindy, oh Lindy, what a woman you are. Strength beyond measure, the most joyous wit, the 'wrong child' who refuses to give up, the misfit, the freaky-deaky unpredictable; a woman who just desperately wants to find 'home'. Not just the bricks and mortar, but family, to feel loved and wanted, to belong.

Tish Delaney has done it again; her writing is flawless, her characterisations are impeccable and her sense of place is resplendent.

Against the backdrop of rural Northern Ireland, a village with the Catholic church at its core, a farm ruled by the most invidious man, whose currency is his land and whose treatment of the women in his life is savagely remorseless - we find Lindy Morris and her Auntie Bell. Banished to the edge of a bog, living the smallest of lives, the only life allowed by Granda Morris..

Lindy, a woman in her fifties, has tasted life beyond the bog, she has felt the freedom of the London streets but she is here now, back in Carnsore. Back where she belongs? Or back because she has no other choice...

A compelling tale of the most tragic loss, of a life lived under the most brutal cruelty but a story told with hope. A first person narrative, our bewitching protagonist has the most sardonic wit, a quality that transcends the need for self pity; there is loathing and there are coping strategies, there are periods of the utmost darkness, but Lindy Morris continues to place one foot in front of the other and celebrates the tiny victories, she refuses to give up.

A second triumph for Tish Delaney - congratulations, I cannot wait to see what comes next.

A sad tale of a life not lived. Lindy and her Aunt Bell live in a house hidden away on the family farm. 54 year old Lindy has spent her life hearing that she is a problem, a mistake etc and when her mother died when she was 7 her aunt had to give up her life to look after her. Both of them always at the mercy of Granda Morris's fists and anger. Lindy has never known the true story of her mother's life. At 18, she escaped to London with her friend Miriam to become auxiliary nurses, but ran back home when her life turned bad once again. A sudden reappearance in her life has the family thinking things will change for the better, but of course nothing ever goes to plan. A sad story of a family who judge by appearances. #netgalley #thesaintoflostthings

EXCERPT: Auntie's job was to keep me under surveillance. I was not to break free again, once was enough. I was too much like my mother, who abandoned the mothering ship early; too much like my father, who we don't talk about. He's a traveller, not of the world, just the roads of Ireland, a king of the long acre. I've never heard his name, though he has plenty of labels. He's a gypsy, a tinker, a knacker, a pikey, and plenty worse besides. I heard all of them from Granda, so I was well-prepared for what I was to hear at school. It bounced off me, the abuse of amateurs. Granda doesn't have any truck with men who don't own land, who don't work it but who want to borrow it from time to time without paying their proper dues. It's not decent to use land when it's not going to be handed on.

One of the things that will make his fists form fast is the reality that I am his rightful heir. Indeed, I am his only heir, but I'm so tainted that he's had to make alternative arrangements. He's against anything of mixed blood - mongrels, Catholic and Protestant unions of any kind, Romany filth coming anywhere near a girl who was raised to be good. That I'm a bastard born under his roof is more than he can stomach. That he kept me and my mother is the single thing I have never been able to understand. His threat to put me and her out to the open road where we belonged was part of our daily bread.

ABOUT 'THE SAINT OF LOST THINGS': There was a time when Lindy Morris escaped to London and walked along the Thames in the moonlight. When life was full and exciting.

Decades later, Lindy lives back with her Auntie Bell on the edge: on the edge of Donegal and on the edge of Granda Morris's land. Granda Morris is a complicated man, a farmer who wanted sons but got two daughters: Auntie Bell and Lindy's mother, who disappeared long ago.

Now, Lindy and Bell live the smallest of lives, in a cottage filled with unfulfilled dreams. But when the secrets they have kept for thirty years emerge, everything is rewritten. Will Lindy grasp who she is again?

MY THOUGHTS: Raw and brutal, but with a beauty all its own.

These characters got inside my head. Lindy with her freaky-deaky smile - I just cracked up at her description of her antics in the supermarket - and a wicked sense of humour, one that I admired; and Bell, full of rage and resentment, are confined together in a cold and desolate house on the edge of a bog. Their detente is not at all cordial. They take what pleasure they can in rubbing one another up the wrong way. The one thing that they are united on is their fear of Granda. Quick with his fists and sharp with his tongue he never lets them forget.

Lindy is the 'wrong child' - in more ways than one. Granda punishes her for being alive, he punishes her for her dead mother's sins, he punishes her because he can. Lindy uses her times of incarceration in 'the Clinic' to spread a little fear of her own.

But Lindy has a secret, one she has managed to keep from Bell and Granda, and the 'wimmen' who come to visit each week. Mrs. Martha Kennedy who is kind; Mrs. Kitty Barr, a 'bitchy bitch'; and Mrs. Deirdre McCrossan who likes nothing better than to rake muck on people's lives and spread it about. The sole light shining in Lindy's miserable life is her friend Miriam, a happy, settled woman, with grandchildren who will occasionally distract Bell so that Lindy can get up to a little mischief.

She is resigned to her life until the Parish Priest, who enjoys a good chinwag with Lindy, makes a discovery . . . and nothing will ever be the same again.

The characterisation is superb, but if you're looking for a joyous read, this isn't it. It is beautiful, sad and bleak; tales of hopes dashed and crushed, but with perhaps a little redemption in the end.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

#TheSaintofLostThings #NetGalley

I: #tishdelaney @randomhouseuk

T: @TishDelaney2 @HutchinsonBooks

#contemporaryfiction #familydrama #familysaga #historicalfiction #irishfiction #mentalhealth #sliceoflife #smalltownfiction

THE AUTHOR: Tish Delaney was born and brought up in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles. Like a lot of people of her generation, she left the sectarian violence behind by moving to England. After graduating from Manchester University, she moved to London and worked on various magazines and broadsheets as a reporter, reviewer and sub-editor. She left the Financial Times in 2014 to live in the Channel Islands to pursue her career as a writer.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Random House UK, Cornerstone, Hutchinson Heinemann via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Saint of Lost Things by Tish Delaney for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review is also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage.

I got lost reading this book and not in a good way. I feel the writing of this to be boring and bleak. This book actually made me feel slightly depressed.

The Saint Of Lost Things by Tish ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Before My Actual Heart Breaks is still a front runner for my book of the year and so when I saw that she had a new one out I knew I had to get my hands on a copy!

We meet 50 something Lindy and her ‘freaky deaky’ smile, stuck in a falling down house with her resentful aunt Bel.

The book moves between the present time in Ireland where her only source of entertainment is the weekly visits from ‘The Wimmin’ and her chats with the local priest, and Lindy’s time in London which slowly reveals to us how she came to be in her current situation.

I just love the writers style and when the characters are talking you hear their voices so clearly in your head. It is a difficult read at times as it is a book about loss and grief but Lindy’s humour prevents it from becoming too dark.

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