VISITOR

Written in the 1940s, The Visitor lay unpublished until 2001 when New Island made it available in hardback to critical acclaim. Now available in paperback, The Visitor deepens the oeuvre of Maeve Brennan and confirms her status as one of the best Irish short-story writers since James Joyce.

Twenty-two-year-old Anastasia King returns to Ireland after six years in Paris, where she lived with her mother away from her father and grandmother. With both parents dead, Anastasia arrives back in Dublin, only to be met by the implacable rage of her grandmother, Mrs. King.

Filled with vengeance and spitefulness, she has determined not to forgive Anastasia for deserting the family. It is clear that while Anastasia thinks she has come home to stay, she is a mere visitor, and an unwelcome one at that.