Nuala O’Faolain’s first memoir Are You Somebody? became a literary sensation and an international bestseller when it was published by New Island Books in 1996. It launched a new life for its author, at a time when she had long since let go of expectations that anything new could dislodge patterns of regret and solitude.

Almost There opens at that moment when O’Faolain’s life began to change. It tells the story of a life in subtle, radical, and unforeseen renewal. It is a tale of good fortune chasing out bad – of an accidental harvest of happiness. But it is also a provocative examination of one woman’s experience of the ‘crucible of middle age’ – a time of life that faces in two directions, that forges the shape of the years to come, and also clarifies and solidifies one’s relationships to friends and lovers, family and self.