The Summer of Lily and Esme
| By: | John Quinn |
| Publisher: | Poolbeg Press Ltd |
| Published: | October 1991 |
| Pages: | 199 |
| Categories: | Fiction |
| Language: | English |
| Available as: | Paperback |
| On sale at: |
The Summer of Lily & Esme tells a quiet story, filled with compassion, friendship, memory and heart. It is the story of Alan, an 11-year-old boy who has moved from the city into a house in the countryside; in the middle of nowhere.The house is old and extremely large and immaculate; and there is a locked, boarded over attic room that is said to be haunted by the ghost of a young boy who died tragically. Alan is not too pleased with this move and becomes even less thrilled when he discovers his closest neighbours, in fact his only neighbours, are a pair of elderly sisters, Esme and Lily, who seem to be suffering from dementia. When Alan falls down a hill of brambles and weeds, the sisters, who believe they themselves to be children, mistake Alan for their childhood friend, Albert. Albert sits at the centre of a mystery that occurred just a few short months after Lily and Esmes' 11th birthday, and now....according to them, he has arrived back. Alan and his new friend, Lisa who has arrived up from Wexford for the summer, set about discovering what happened to Albert, and, by extension, the sisters.
Other Books From this Category
-
26 Aug 2027 - Hachette Books Ireland
Untitled Sophie White 6
By Sophie White
-
10 Jun 2027 - Penguin
Aftertaste
It’s the turn of the millennium, and Meadhbh has just moved to London from rural Ireland. By chance she meets Aly, who lives off her parents’ wealth while studying for yet another master’s de...
-
13 May 2027 - Penguin Books Ltd
Red Flags
'A top-notch thriller ... Intriguing, exciting and enthralling.’ Liz Nugent --- She has a secret. They’re using it to kill. No one knows Alice Keane’s dating app is coded with a hidden algor...
-
1 Apr 2027 - Picador
Mother Made Me
By Niamh Mulvey
For crime writer Pat, her mother’s cruelty has long cast a shadow over her life. On a trip to Paris, she’s reaching breaking point, afraid of what she might do. Then, suddenly, Mother is found dea...
-
19 Mar 2027 - New Island Books
THE SPANKING GODDESS: and Other Discarded Tales
By Clare Murphy
In The Spanking Goddess & Other Discarded Tales, professional storyteller Clare Murphy exhumes the Celtic canon to bring the wild women who never made the cut, back into the light. A shapeshifter span...
-
18 Mar 2027 - Hachette Books Ireland
If These Walls Could Talk: The new rural noir thriller from the author readers can’t put down
-
4 Mar 2027 - Hachette Books Ireland
The Nun of Ravensbrück: The Irish Nun Who Defied the Nazis
Based on the Incredible True Story of Sr Kate McCarthy IMPRISONED BY EVIL, HER SPIRIT NEVER SURRENDERED 1944, Ravensbrück - the infamous concentration camp for women. Amid unimaginable suffering, S...
-
4 Mar 2027 - Stinging Fly Press
Exclaves
-
19 Feb 2027 - New Island Books
The Pale Gold of Alaska: and other stories
From one of Ireland’s most acclaimed storytellers, and the current Laureate for Irish Fiction, this beautifully crafted collection brings together three remarkable short stories by Éilís Ní Dhuib...
-
18 Feb 2027 - Hachette Books Ireland
Break
It's all ahead of him. The endless summer days now that school is finally done, and the unknown future after that - a future where, if Rian gets his way, he'll leave home far behind him. But befor...
-
8 Feb 2027 - O'Brien Press Ltd
Small Magics: Spellbound [WBD 2027]
By Alex Dunne
Magic is everywhere … if you know how to look for it … When Molly Flynn came to live with Pat, Priya and their foster kids, Wren and Lorcan, she was swept into a world of magic – and discovere...
-
8 Feb 2027 - O'Brien Press Ltd
Small Magics: Spellbound [WBD 2027]
By Alex Dunne
Magic is everywhere … if you know how to look for it … When Molly Flynn came to live with Pat, Priya and their foster kids, Wren and Lorcan, she was swept into a world of magic – and discovere...
-
4 Feb 2027 - Hachette Books Ireland
Love Scene
By Anna Carey
-
4 Feb 2027 - Hachette Books Ireland
Iseult
By Helen Cullen
Raised in myth. Silenced by scandal. As her mother lies dying, Iseult Gonne must reclaim the one story she was never allowed to tell - her own. Set over a single day in 1953 Dublin, Iseult Gonne - ch...
-
4 Feb 2027 - Hachette Books Ireland
Iseult
By Helen Cullen
Raised in myth. Silenced by scandal. As her mother lies dying, Iseult Gonne must reclaim the one story she was never allowed to tell - her own. Set over a single day in 1953 Dublin, Iseult Gonne - ch...
-
4 Feb 2027 - Hachette Books Ireland
The Hotel Guest
'Haunting, intelligent, atmospheric' SAM BLAKE Her fate was in their hands. Now their future is in hers. Kit's summer job at the Abbaye de Saint Maurice was supposed to be a clean slate - until she ...
-
2 Feb 2027 - The Mercier Press
Hy Brasil
The old charts promised an island that lifts out of the western ocean once in seven years, and is gone before any keel can reach it. In Hy Brasil it lifts as a starship – and it has come for a poet....
-
1 Feb 2027 - O'Brien Press Ltd
Kicking Off: A RUGBY adventure
‘The BallyK Foxes will fight all the way!’ Over the summer, Emma, Kevin, Fiona and Noel set up their own rugby club: the BallyK Foxes. Now they're back at school, and it’s hard to find tim...
-
1 Feb 2027 - O'Brien Press Ltd
Kicking Off: A RUGBY adventure
‘The BallyK Foxes will fight all the way!’ Over the summer, Emma, Kevin, Fiona and Noel set up their own rugby club: the BallyK Foxes. Now they're back at school, and it’s hard to find tim...
-
25 Jan 2027 - O'Brien Press Ltd
A Subtle Web
By Angela Hanna
A night Lena can’t remember soon becomes one she can’t forget. Lena wakes up in hospital after a party with no memory of what just happened to her or what she did. Bombarded with hate message...
Other Books From this Author
-
13 Mar 2026 - Orpen Press
Daily Wisdom · Léann an Lae: Irish Proverbs and Sayings for Each Day of the Year
By John Quinn
Proverbs from the Irish language - seanfhocail - hark back to a time when Ireland and its people were predominantly agricultural, poor and Catholic; though centuries old, they are integral to a sense ...
-
29 Sep 2025 - Orpen Press
The Passing Year: Remembrances, Recollections, Ruminations
By John Quinn
The book contains the author's personal journal from 2024, documenting his observations and the memories and thoughts (recollections and ruminations) they inspired. Quinn reflects on both the negative...
-
15 May 2024 - Veritas Publications
Homage: A Salute to Fifty Memorable Minds
By John Quinn
In his inimitable style John Quinn pays homage to fifty well-known people from various fields – the arts, education, politics, business, science, economics – all of whom he interviewed in the cour...
-
20 Oct 2021 - Veritas Publications
Stolen Moments
By John Quinn
The moments collected in this book range from -the sad loss of a loved one -to the minor -the nuiseance of daffodils -and in between embrace an unlikely variety of triggers -a chance remark -honeymo...
-
1 Apr 2008 - Veritas Publications
Goodnight Ballivor, I'll Sleep in Trim: A Childhood Memoir
By John Quinn
Not another memoir of childhood? Well, yes actually. Not another regressive desire to capture a golden weren't-we-poor-but-happy age? Well, no. Nor a pursuit of misery and repression either. This is s...
-
22 Sep 2006 - O'Brien Press Ltd
Sean Boylan: The Will to Win
By John Quinn
Sean Boylan's own account of his years as manager of the Meath football team is an inspiring read and a must for any GAA enthusiast. Renowned as the manager who brought the Sam Maguire to Meath after ...
-
25 Nov 1993 - Poolbeg Press Ltd
Duck and Swan
By John Quinn
On a school trip to Dublin, Emer discovers Duck, a twelve-year-old half-Nigerian, half-Irish runaway boy who is taken in by an elderly couple, uncovers his athletic ability at the game of hurling, and...
-
15 Apr 1992 - Poolbeg Press Ltd
The Summer of Lily and Esme - New edition
By John Quinn
The Summer of Lily & Esme tells a quiet story, filled with compassion, friendship, memory and heart. It is the story of Alan, an 11-year-old boy who has moved from the city into a house in the country...
