Edel Coffey is the latest leading Irish writer to join the acclaimed Hot Press series My Reading of It. The bestselling author and journalist reads and extract from her superb debut novel Breaking Point, which Marian Keyes has described as “a gripping, compulsive page-turner about what we expect from women, especially mothers.”

The reading coincides with an appearance at the Festival of Writing and Ideas this weekend, in Borris Village, Co. Carlow.

Others on the line-up in Borris include D. B. C. Pierre, Mary Robinson, Nick Broomfield, Sharon Horgan, Richard Ford, Steve Coogan and Laurie Anderson...

“Breaking Point tells the story of two women who have each reached their own individual breaking points in life," Edel Coffey said of her widely-praised book. "The book explores what brought them to those breaking points and the consequences of how they have chosen to live their lives.”

The book tells the story of working mother, Dr. Susannah – an incredibly successful paediatrician in a busy Manhattan hospital and also a writer of popular parenting books; and of Adelaide, who is described as a “roving national reporter” - a journalist who is always moving from story to story and from place to place. Running from her own past, she does not want to engage with her emotions about what she has endured.

The two women’s worlds collide when Dr. Susannah accidentally leaves her baby in a car – and is left dealing with the aftermath of what proves to be a fatal mistake. Adelaide ends up covering the negligence trial, with the two women’s stories intertwining in a way that has huge emotional resonance.

Liz Nugent describes Breaking Point as “raw, compelling, and ground-breaking; Coffey puts the life of working mothers under a microscope. To say I loved it is an understatement.”

Watch Edel Coffey read from Breaking Point on the Hot Press YouTube channel:

Check out our interview with Coffey from earlier this year here.

• Edel Coffey appears this weekend at FESTIVAL OF WRITING & IDEAS.