Binchy Maeve. Whitethorn Woods

The novel (2006) is told through the stories of numerous people who are somehow connected to a town in Ireland by the name of Rossmore. The town faces a major dilemma as news surfaces that a new highway is being built through the area, which could threaten to disrupt the peaceful and undisturbed life that the town has enjoyed so far.
Maeve Binchy (born 1940 Dalkey, County Dublin) is an Irish novelist, newspaper columnist and speaker. Educated at University College Dublin, she worked as a teacher, then a journalist at The Irish Times and later became a writer of novels and short stories.
Many of her novels are set in Ireland, dealing with the tensions between urban and rural life, the contrasts between England and Ireland, and the dramatic changes in Ireland between World War II and the present day.
Her novel Circle of Friends was made into a 1995 Hollywood movie starring Chris O'Donnell and Minnie Driver with a radical change of ending.