Book Club: Chestnut Street

Book: Chestnut Street

Author: Maeve Binchy

Amazon Summary: 

Just round the corner from St Jarlath's Crescent (featured in MINDING FRANKIE) is Chestnut Street. Here, the lives of the residents are revealed in Maeve Binchy's wonderfully compelling tales:


Bucket Maguire, the window cleaner, who must do more than he bargained for to protect his son. Nessa Byrne, whose aunt comes to visit from America for six weeks every summer and turns the house - and Nessa's world - upside down. Lilian, the generous girl with a big heart, and the fiancé not everyone approves of. And Melly, whose gossip about the neighbours leads to trouble in the form of the fortune teller, 'Madame Magic'...


No one rivals Maeve Binchy for stories of warmth, kindness, love, loss - and life not always turning out as expected.

What I Have To Say: Let me start by saying, I am a HUGE Maeve Binchy fan and highly recommend all of her books. Maeve, sadly, past away a few years ago. This book, her last, is a collection of short stories and was published posthumously...Maeve's magic was missing; she has the fantastic ability to weave her stories together, to complete them, and, in the case of a short story collection, have a natural lead in.

I loved all of the stories and learning about the people of Chestnut Street. Her characters are always so relateable and it's so easy to get drawn into their lives. The let down in this collection, is that the stories didn't have a final end...lots of questions unanswered and a desire to find out what happens next...except there was no next. Moving from one story to the next was also a bit disjointed.

Final Verdict: As a Maeve Binchy fan, I will re-read this and recommend it, but only to people who are familiar with her work. If you haven't read Maeve Binchy before, do not start with this book- it doesn't showcase her true abilities as a fantastic and celebrated author.