47 Roses

The Story

A family secret, a sacrifice for love, a dying mother, a search for the truth: the ingredients of 47 Rosessuggest a compelling novel. But for Peter Sheridan, these are not the elements of fiction-they are the ingredients of his own life. In 47 Roses, Sheridan tells the moving and sometimes shocking story of 'the other woman' in his parents' lives. Upon his father's sudden death in Dublin, Sheridan finds out about his father's almost fifty-year relationship with Doris, an Englishwoman who was both less and far more than a mistress. Sheridan elegantly describes his search for the truth in the face of resistance from his mother, who falls fatally ill. He eventually meets Doris and learns that she never married, living only for her brief meetings with Sheridan's father. This beautifully written portrait of a marriage forces us, like Sheridan himself, to face truths of the heart that refuse to conform to the easy verities of convention.