‘Irish Examiner’ reporter Ann O'Loughlin's novel hits Amazon top 20

A debut novel by Irish Examiner reporter Ann O’Loughlin, based on the forced adoption of Irish children in institutions to US families, has been named among Amazon’s top 20 bestselling ebooks of the year so far.

Set at the height of the recession in Ireland in a crumbling mansion, The Ballroom Cafe focuses on two elderly sisters who live alone with their secrets, memories, and mutual hatred.

When they are threatened with bankruptcy, one converts the mansion’s old ballroom into a cafe but finds herself reliving painful memories when an American woman searching for her birth mother begins working there.