Reminiscent of both Colm Toibin's Brooklyn and Matthew Thomas' We Are Not Ourselves, this enveloping novel follows a fraught Irish family through unimaginable trials. It introduces its two main characters as young sisters ready to emigrate from Ireland to America and follows them through the rest of their lives. All of Sullivan's characters leap off the page. You don't read ... Read morethis book; you breathe it
Independent
In the spirit of Colm Toibin's novels comes Saints for All Occasions . . . A bittersweet story, but a brilliant one
The Lady
A fabulous read
Hello!
Beautifully drawn, with wonderful period detail. A compelling family saga, full of grief and regret, it's always absorbing
Sunday Mirror
Skilfully written, involving read
Woman & Home
This graceful and compelling family saga is beautifully drawn and full of grief, regret and wonderful period detail. At times Saints for all Occasions is achingly sad but it is always completely absorbing
The People
Depression over the state of the world kept me from reading for a few weeks towards the end of last year, but I started again with Saints for All Occasions, devoured it over a weekend and found my reading mojo again
Jane Green
New York Times
A fascinating, riveting read
Sarra Manning
Red
I hope to read another novel as strong and wise and beautiful and heartbreaking as J. Courtney Sullivan's Saints for All Occasions this year, but I'm not sure I will
Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls With tenderness and a knack for depicting Irish grandmothers that anybody who has one will appreciate, Sullivan celebrates ordinary people doing their best to live saintly lives
Time
Fabulous and smart
Emma Straub
New York Times
A breathtaking literary ode to life, change, and the unbreakable bonds of family
Redbook
An engrossing family drama . . . Sullivan's profound understanding of her characters and the Irish-Catholic culture that defines them illuminates every scene
People magazine
A blockbuster . . . An engrossing family drama with feisty humor and transformative tough love
Elle magazine
Moving . . . Eloquently testifies to the durability of the fabric of family . . . Touched with . . . warmth, kindness and gentle wisdom
Wall Street Journal
Carefully plotted . . . Sullivan succeeds in creating a believably complicated, clannish Irish-American family . . . Engrossing
New York Times
This year's best book about family . . . Elegant . . . Captivating . . . Deft and insightful . . . A quiet masterpiece . . . impressive. Saints for All Occasions is so unassuming that its artistry looks practically invisible. In a simple style that never commits a flutter of extravagance, Sullivan draws us into the lives of the Raffertys, and in the rare miracle of fiction makes us care about them like they were our own family
Ron Charles
Washington Post
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