Late September in 2001, and the walls of New York are papered over with photos of the missing. Cora Brady’s father is there, the poster she made taped to columns and bridges. Her mother died a long ago and now, orphaned on the cusp of childhood, Cora is adrift and alone. Soon, a letter arrive with the offer of a new life: far out on the ragged edge of Ireland, in the town where her parents were young, an estranged aunt can provide a home and fulfil a long-forgotten promise. There the story of Cora’s family is hidden, and in her presence will begin to unspool.

Confessions is an essential, impressive debut from an astonishing new voice, as it traces the arc of three generation of women as they experience in their own time the irresistible gravity of the past: its love and tragedy, its mystery and redemption, and in all things intended and accidental, the beauty and terrible shade of the things we do.

This transatlantic family saga, with five characters’ viewpoints darting back and forth between New York and Ireland, revealing the secrets that gradually dismantle and rebuild the framework of one small family’s legacy.

Confessions by Catherine Airey, Viking/Mariner Books, 480pages, £16.99.