Summary

In the section Four Months Later (July 2014), Marianne and Connell watch TV in Connell's childhood bedroom. Marianne asks if he kissed this girl Niamh at the party the night before, which he did not. She tells him Eric apologized for being unkind to her while they were in school. Connell says he thinks Rob would have wanted to apologize too. Marianne thinks about the things that grief brings out in people. After school finishes at Trinity, Marianne moves home. Connell visits her every weekend. She remembers the purposefulness she felt attending a rally with Connell back in Dublin. Life at home feels empty. Her brother Alan is cruel and violent.

She and Connell start talking about their former friends. Connell mentions the unkind things they said about her after she and Jamie broke up. They talk...