The Irish Goodbye

A Literary Fiction Novel by Heather Aimee O'Neill

Subgenres:

Family Saga,
Sisters,
Grief

Published 2025

Length 288 pages

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This book is for you if you're into...

Sisterhood tangled up in old secrets and fresh heartbreak
Thanksgiving gatherings where family tension simmers under every conversation
Queer storylines colliding with tradition and Catholic family expectations

From Little Stack

Sisters Cait, Alice, and Maggie are reuniting for Thanksgiving in Long Island. But along with their luggage, the adult women are carrying secrets, grief, and guilt over a tragic boating accident that took their brother’s life twenty years ago.

If you gravitate towards stories about the complexities of grief, you’ll welcome a seat at this table as this messy but loving family attempts to share a meal, make peace with their complicated past, and find a way to move forward together. A debut release, it’s also been chosen for the Today show #ReadwithJenna Book Club.

As Featured in Endlessly Entertaining Family Meltdowns in Fiction by Gg Andrew

Publisher Description

In this emotionally resonant and gripping novel, three adult sisters struggle with the past as they reunite for a Thanksgiving weekend on the East End of Long Island.

It's been years since the three Ryan sisters were all together at their beloved family home. Two decades ago, their lives were upended by a fatal accident on their brother Topher's boat. Now the Ryan women are back for Thanksgiving, eager to reconnect, but each carries a heavy secret.

The eldest, Cait, still holding guilt for the role no one knows she played in the boat accident, rekindles a flame with her high school crush. Middle sister Alice has been thrown a curveball that threatens the career she's restarting and faces a difficult decision that may doom her marriage. And the youngest, Maggie, is finally taking the risk of bringing the woman she loves home to meet her devoutly Catholic mother.

When Cait invites a guest from their shared past to Thanksgiving dinner, old tensions boil over and new truths surface, nearly overpowering the flickering light of their family bond. Far more than a family holiday will be ruined unless the sisters can find a way to forgive one another—and themselves.

with Heather Aimee O'Neill

“ My background in poetry has influenced my prose in many ways. I think of each scene in a chapter as a kind of poem, and I'm always paying attention to the language and sound of the writing. ”