"A wonderfully, vividly written account of the love … between mothers and daughters … illuminates the ways that love fails us andthen, as we are about to sink, reaches out and sets us back afloat."

"Mingling myth and motherhood, and jumping generations and continents … Lisa Carey has created a magical first novel."

"Mermaids combines the flinty Ireland of Angela's Ashes … and the long-delayed reunion of lost loves of Cold Mountain. You're sighing sympathetically before the end of the first chapter. Carey's three heroines' … stories are skillfully woven together by the watery Celtic mythology of life on Inis Mururch."

"Three generations of Irish women reconcile past and present in this ethereal debut."

"An exceptional debut … told in the voice of three generations of feisty but very different women, her novel weaves intricate Irish myths into an emotionally complex and powerfully affecting narrative."

"A well woven and beautifully lyrical story of three powerful women."