Young Dubliners in Love

So what do you do when something you dearly want can never happen, at least not in a way that will protect your self-respect? How much are you prepared to overlook in your pursuit of personal happiness? How much are you willing to lose?

What about how your decisions will affect other people? Is that a consideration at all, or should you just let the chips fall where they may?

It’s timeless questions like these that haunt Five Days Apart. Binchy writes about deep friendships between straight Irish men with unusual honesty, making his characters all the more recognizable.

It’s the bonds of the longstanding friendship between David and Alex that prevent them from giving up on each other when a particularly seductive woman enters the picture, and most of the drama of the novel is supplied by the tension between their longstanding affection and this new one.

Behind the love triangle Binchy also writes about post-Celtic Tiger era Dublin with such a shrewd eye it’s almost like seeing the place for the first time. He captures the abandoned upscale bistros, the empty financial centers and the shuttered gymnasiums with a gimlet eye.

“I never believed in it anyway. We always knew this would happen,” he writes.

In most love stories, love is a balm that takes the sharper edges off reality. But in Five Days Apart it’s more like a glass of cold water to the face. Binchy has written a captivating tale that lingers in the memory long after you put it down.

Five Days Apart is published by Harper, $24.99.

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Nster.com