About the Book
On an island off the west coast of Ireland, the Moone family gathers.
Maeve is an actor, struggling with her most challenging role yet – as a mother to four children. Murtagh, her devoted husband, is a potter whose craft brought them from the city to this rural life.
In the wake of one fateful night, the Moone siblings must learn the story of who their parents truly are, and what has happened since their first meeting, years before, outside Trinity College in Dublin.
We watch as one love story gives rise to another, until we arrive at a future that none of the Moones could have predicted. Except perhaps Maeve herself.
Format: ebook (325 pages) Publisher: Penguin
Publication date: 20th August 2020 Genre: Contemporary Fiction
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My Review
When I read Helen Cullen’s debut novel The Lost Letters of William Woolf back in 2018 I commented that the real achievement of the book was the way she explored the dynamics of the relationship between William and his wife, Clare. It was a portrait of a marriage that had gone slightly astray because they had lost the ability to communicate openly and honestly about their feelings, hopes and ambitions.
The author repeats that feat – in fact, with even greater skill – in The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually. The book depicts the relationship between Maeve and Murtagh and, in particular, Maeve’s struggles with being the sort of mother to her four children she would like to be. In fact, to be the sort of person she would like to be.
Following the tragic events of the opening chapter, the reader is taken back in time to witness Maeve and Murtagh’s first meeting and the blossoming of their relationship. It’s not hard to understand what attracts Murtagh to the beautiful, spirited but mercurial Maeve, a budding actor. In reality though Maeve’s life is something of a performance. As she observes, ‘Here people see the theatre student, the vinyl collector, the poet, Murtagh’s girlfriend, the American, the actress; so many different things, and none of them are the sick girl, or the other far worse things we know some folks called me’.
When Murtagh is given the opportunity to pursue his career as a potter on Inis Óg, a small island off the coast of Galway in Ireland, it means Maeve giving up her own aspirations. It’s just one of the things that creates the first small fissures in Maeve’s mental state. Those fissures will gradually expand until the whole edifice comes crashing down. As the book progresses, we witness heartbreaking moments such as Maeve recording in her journal her ‘good’ days and ‘bad’ days and finding the second have become more numerous than the first. She worries about the impact the days when despair overwhelms her is having on her children, and on Murtagh in particular. ‘Murtagh is so loyal, he would never leave me. He would endure the challenge of living with me and my moods and my difficulties until the end of time if I let him.’
It leads her to take a decision born out of love but which won’t appear that way to her family. Just the opposite in fact. It’s only years later that some kind of understanding dawns, bringing together a family which has become fractured, resentful and distant from one another. I absolutely fell in love with Murtagh who is the most wonderful character. I felt I shared with him every moment of joy, every moment of grief and silently cheered when he reflected, ‘There was room in his life for one more dream, maybe.’
If this is making it sound like a story of interminable sadness, I can reassure you it is not. There are moments of humour too and the book ends on the most wonderfully uplifting note. I’m not ashamed to admit I shed a few tears at some of the sadder moments but also got slightly misty-eyed at the end. I thought The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually was wonderful and I’m so glad I finally got around to reading it.
I received a review copy courtesy of Penguin via NetGalley.
In three words: Powerful, insightful, moving
About the Author
Helen Cullen is an Irish writer living in London. Helen worked at RTE (Ireland’s national broadcaster) for seven years before moving to London in 2010. Her debut novel, The Lost Letters of William Woolf, was published by Penguin in July 2018 in the UK, Ireland, Australia and South Africa, and published in America by Harper Collins in June 2019. The novel is also available in translation in numerous foreign markets including Italy, Germany, Russia, Greece and Israel where it hit the bestseller charts. The Lost Letters of William Woolf has also been optioned for television by Mainstreet Pictures. The novel also garnered Helen a Best Newcomer nomination in the An Post Irish Book Awards 2018. Her second novel, The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually, was published in Ireland and the UK and as The Dazzling Truth in the USA and Canada in August 2020.
Helen holds an M.A. Theatre Studies from UCD, an M.A. English Literature at Brunel University and commenced a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of East Anglia in October 2020. She is now writing full-time and also contributes to the Irish Times newspaper and Sunday Times Magazine. (Photo/bio: Author website)
Connect with Helen
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What Cathy Read Next... 
I’ve had a brilliant year reading lots of Irish and Northern Irish women’s novels. Adding this one to my reading list in the hope of continuing that streak! Great review, Cathy.
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I read this a few years back and really loved it. I thought she created really believable and relatable characters and the family dynamic was really well done.
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