The Alternatives

A bold, beautiful, complex novel.

From childhood orphanhood to adult independence, four ingenious Irish sisters—Olwen, Maeve, Nell and Rhona—navigate the professional, personal and ecological challenges of their thirties. All single, all with PhDs, each sister is pursuing meaningful work across the globe: from Connecticut classrooms to London’s elegant catering scene, from geological fieldwork to academic offices.

When Olwen, haunted by her awareness of the earth’s precarious future, vanishes without warning, the remaining sisters converge on rural Ireland. There they abandon the life they’ve built and shadow the missing sibling into a derelict bungalow near the border, where past wounds and familial bonds emerge into the open.

In the process of search and reunion, the sisters confront their shared history of grief, the burdens of independence, the demands of caring for the planet and one another, and the question: what are the alternatives—to the life we lead, the work we choose, the relationships we maintain? Warmly witty and intellectually daring, this is a story about sisterhood, ambition, nature, and belonging.

“Exuberant… Hughes’s prose is like a virtuosic jazz number — loose, free and surprising… A bold, beautiful, complex novel.” The New York Times Book Review

“The novel begins with alternating chapters that sharply delve into each woman’s life and work in brief, fascinating lectures on subjects from land subsidence to locavorism… Ultimately The Alternatives is concerned with the duties of caring for the planet and one’s loved ones.” The Wall Street Journal

“Intelligent, impassioned, and wholly satisfying.” Kirkus Reviews

“Warm, fiercely witty, and unexpectedly hopeful… The Alternatives is an unforgettable portrait of a family perched on our collective precipice.” BookBrowse