"Bird in the Snow" follows twenty-four hours in the life of Birdie Waters, an old woman alone in her house on the eve of burying her only son. As snow falls over the Irish midlands, Birdie keeps vigil through the night, moving through rooms, photographs and memories.

She recalls Gussie, her troubled son; Alex, her beloved late husband, the handsome vet who danced her into a better life; Louise, the woman who might once have saved Gussie from loneliness; and Hughie Donoghue, the flute player whose music and presence still stir something deep within her. What unfolds is the portrait of a life that may have seemed ordinary from the outside, but was filled with passion, pride, shame, humour, longing and grief.

In Birdie's restless mind, the past is never safely past: it returns in fragments, jokes, prayers, hallucinations, secrets and sudden wounds. Through her memories, a rural Irish world of dance halls, parish gossip, Catholic fear, family silence and fierce private love is brought vividly back to life.

Tender, darkly comic and deeply moving, "Bird in the Snow" is a powerful act of remembrance: the story of a woman who has survived by holding on to everything, because only she remembers it all. Magnificently interpreted by Marcella Riordan, this is an intimate, haunting and unforgettable audiobook from Michael Harding.

For listeners drawn to Anne Enright, Sebastian Barry and Edna O'Brien.