Ger Burke grew up in Tuam Co Galway. Having lived for some time in London and later Boston she returned to live in Co Mayo.  While in the US she completed a creative writing course in Holyoke College, Massachusetts. She has written historical short stories dealing with recent events in Irish history.

She has had many literary successes, both in print and radio, since becoming a full-time writer. She has been short-listed for the Francis McManus Short Story Award, was long-listed for the Fish Historical Short Story Competition and was runner up in the Fish flash fiction competition. She had been published in the anthology Galway Stories and the Over the Edge anthology.

She was a Director of an Arts Festival for many years and is also a former radio correspondent with North West Radio.

In  Braided Loves Ger Burke brings the same deftness to this contemporary story as she did to her historical novel.

This is no fluffy, pink popular escapism but a hard-hitting story that is braided with clear-eyed insights. It pulls real punches and forces us to confront such themes as alcoholism, sexual repression and religious differences by taking us into a world that is real and vividly imagined.

Here we witness Teresa Goldstein in all her flawed humanity, artfully captured, where denial is her driving force. Her crumbling life brings her into many dark places, where love and living one day at a time are the only things that can bring her through. As a result, it leaves an indelible impression on her readers’ hearts.

                                                                                             Geraldine Mills

Teresa Goldstein is in meltdown. Teacher, writer, wife, mother--roles she can't juggle anymore. Braided Loves is an unflinching account of her struggle to make a new life and escape the demons from her past and present . Fresh starts aren't easy. Ger Burke tackles her themes with energy and verve.       

                                                                                        Clairr O' Connor

‘In clear, concise prose, Ger Burke maps the lonely route of Teresa Goldstein through family life, experienced by way of the lens of a bottle. By turns sad and insightful, Braided Loves is a thoroughly Irish novel packed with guilt, secrecy and hope.’

           Nuala Ní Chonchúir, author of Mother America

Braided Loves, a novel by Ger Burke

RRP €11.00 ISBN 1907017216