A Beautiful Loan A Novel

By: Mary Costello

Published by W. W. Norton, Incorporated, 2026-03-24

In Dublin in 1985, nineteen-year-old Anna Hughes is in thrall to Peter Gallagher, an older, worldly man. Her obsessive longing for him leads to marriage, bereavement and, eventually, to a crushing betrayal.

When Anna meets a kindhearted Muslim man, she finds herself falling in love not only with him, but with the Muslim faith itself. For a while, Karim provides a refuge and offers renewed hope, but slowly Anna's life begins to contract and she realizes she must find a way to break free.

Unfolding across twenty-five years, this is a gut-punch of a novel about the loss of innocence, the shame and humiliations of love, and the psychological cost of seeking salvation in others. A Beautiful Loan is a devastating story about what it means to be a woman, as well as a testament to literature's ability to give us a language when we're lost for words.