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A Beautiful Loan
Published 24 March 2026
ISBN 9781923058286
Format Trade Paperback
Extent 192pp
AU Price $34.99
NZ Price $40.00

A Beautiful Loan

Formats & editions
Tr. Paperback
24 Mar 2026
EBook
24 Mar 2026
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Exquisitely written and profoundly moving—the new literary novel from an award-winning Irish author.

‘An exceptional, compulsive novel of love, loss and courage.' Sinead Gleeson

‘Mary Costello is a writer of rare and exquisite sensitivity’ Paul Lynch

‘One of our foremost women writers’ Guardian

This is Anna’s story.

In Dublin in 1985, nineteen-year-old Anna Hughes is in thrall to Peter Gallagher, an older, worldly man. Anna is introverted and naïve, and Peter’s experience, wide circle of friends and thirst for adventure captivate her. Her obsessive longing for him leads to marriage and, eventually, a crushing betrayal.

When Anna meets a kind-hearted Algerian man, she finds herself falling in love with him. Life with Karim offers stability and renewed hope and, slowly, Anna begins to uncover deeper layers of herself.

Unfolding over twenty-five years, this is a profound novel about the loss of innocence, the price of love, and the cost of seeking salvation in others. With her exquisite insight, Mary Costello tells a piercing story about longing, intimacy and the unpredictable road to discovery of the self.

PRAISE:

'an emotionally intricate love story.’ Age

‘Brings to mind the elegance of Colm Tóibín and the insight of Alice Munro.’ Maggie O'Farrell

'an intensely moving and exquisitely-written novel' Lucy Caldwell

‘like a beautiful piece of music… I am filled with admiration for Mary Costello.’ Claire Messud

‘Grounded, fully charged and realistic.’ Saturday Paper
'A subtle, unsettling and deeply humane novel that lingers long after the final page.’ Sunday Independent

Published 24 March 2026
ISBN 9781923058286
Format Trade Paperback
Extent 192pp
AU Price $34.99
NZ Price $40.00

About the author

Mary Costello

Mary Costello’s short story collection, The China Factory, was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award and shortlisted for an Irish Book Award. Her first novel, Academy Street, won the Irish Novel of the Year Award and was named overall Irish Book of the Year in 2014. The River Capture, her second novel, was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards, the Kerry Group Awards and the Dalkey Book Awards. Mary Costello lives in Galway.
portrait photo of Mary Costello

Also by Mary Costello

The River Capture
Academy Street
The China Factory
See all

Praise for A Beautiful Loan

Costello is a writer of rare and exquisite sensitivity – intimate, piercing, death-haunted – with sentences that can turn on a pin into vastness

Paul Lynch

Brings to mind the elegance of Colm Tóibín and the insight of Alice Munro

Maggie O’Farrell

Mary Costello has a genius for taking ordinary, unheralded lives and discovering within them the disquiet, the disillusionment, concealed just below the surface

Australian

Costello's writing has the kind of urgency that the great problems demand

Anne Enright