At Weddings & Wakes is a literary novel that explores the lives of a close-knit Irish-American Catholic family living in New York. The story is centered around significant family events—weddings and funerals—which reveal long-standing emotions, tensions, and hidden histories.
Through a series of interconnected moments, the novel reflects on themes such as faith, family bonds, memory, love, loss, and the quiet struggles of everyday life. McDermott focuses on ordinary people and shows how personal relationships are shaped by tradition and emotional complexity.