The lonely passion of Judith Hearne / Brian Moore ; afterword by Mary Gordon

First published in London in 1955 under title: Judith Hearne.

Judith Hearne-frugal, unmarried, middle-aged-has just made a fresh start: she's moved into a new boarding house in Belfast. Though she quickly finds she doesn't think much of her new housemates, there is one exception: her nosy landlady's brother, a Mr. James Patrick Madden. Mr. Madden has recently returned from America, where he was in the hotel business-a perfectly respectable career, Judith decides-and unlike most of the men who have come into and gone out of her life, he seems to care for her. Judith and Mr. Madden go to Mass together, then to the movies, and even to the Plaza for dinner; and for the first time, Judith allows herself to imagine a different kind of life than the spinsterhood to which she had been resigned. Marrying Mr. Madden could bring the kind of security and happiness Judith has never experienced-she spent her youth nursing a cruel, sick aunt and has barely made ends meet since her aunt died. To be Mrs. Madden would change everything. But Mr. Madden has his own ideas about his relationship with Judith, and they don't match her romantic fantasies. What begins as a simple misunderstanding between two well-intentioned people is soon complicated by the secrets and self-delusions harbored by each. The result is a deeply human portrait of imagination gone awry and life gone astray.