Whale Harbor

1960s, Ireland. In the wake of tragedy, a father makes choices for his eleven grieving sons. The older brothers will emigrate to England for work, while the younger ones will stay behind. The second eldest, Macdara, is offered a job on a Montana cattle ranch and sets off. His spirited younger brother Rian begs to come along and Mac promises to bring Rian to America as soon as he’s old enough. But then one day Mac gets a call that Rian has gone missing. His disappearance will haunt Mac and his family across decades.

Spanning lifetimes and continents, Whale Harbor is “tender, immersive, and exquisitely written” (Florence Knapp, author of The Names) with award-winning author Mary Beth Keane’s signature wit, eloquence, and attention to the emotional resonance of family, brotherhood, and the choices that echo across generations.

Inspired by the author's own family history, it follows the fortunes of eleven brothers, whose lives are set on different paths in the wake of a sudden tragedy. Whilst the younger brothers remain in Ireland, the older ones head overseas to Montana and New York, where they find work and build lives and families of their own. When one brother mysteriously disappears and becomes estranged from the family, it sparks a lifelong quest to find him.