Irish writer pens one of the most emotional novels of the last decade

This Irish novel is impossible to put down

I knew Show Me Where It Hurts by Claire Gleeson was going to be special when I first picked it up, but I didn't think it'd have as big an impact on me as it did.

The novel is very distressing to read as it follows a mum who is grieving the loss of her two children, who died in a car accident caused deliberately by her husband, Tom.

Show Me Where It Hurts asked readers - how can you survive the unsurvivable?

The synopsis reads:

How do you survive the unsurvivable?

Rachel lives with her husband Tom and their two children: it's the ordinary family life she always thought she'd have. All of that changes in an instant - when Tom runs the family car off the road, seeking to end his own life, and take his wife and children with him. Rachel is left to pore over the wreckage to try and understand what happened, to find a way to go on living afterwards.

What emerges is a snapshot of what it's like to live alongside someone who is suffering, how you keep yourself afloat when the person you love is drowning, and how you survive irreparable loss.

Show Me Where It Hurts is one of the most impactful and moving books I've read in the last ten years, but one that will completely break your heart in two.

The novel is under 250 pages, but it is by no means an easy read. It is full of devastation, loss, grief, heartache, and raw emotions that you can feel jump out from the pages.

Gleeson has created a protagonist so believable that you feel like you've met Rachel in real life. Your heart breaks for her, you feel concerned about her, and you want to jump into the pages of the novel and help her.

Show Me Where It Hurts is one of the best books of 2025

The topic of the novel is incredibly heavy, so be wary of that before you pick up a copy. This is a book that will be an uncomfortbale and distressing read for many, but Gleeson has managed to deal with such a sensitive storyline with the utmost grace and care.

Rachel's husband Tom does the unthinkable to their family, to her beloved children, but the book balances his horrendous crime with the real mental health struggles many are facing.

This is a novel that is so unspeakably sad that it almost seeps into your bones and stays with you long after reading it. The haunting and heartbreaking feeling lingers long after that last chapter, but it is undoubtedly one of the most important and emotional novels of the last decade.

Show Me Where It Hurts by Claire Gleeson is out now.