Skyrocketing to the number one spot on the Irish bestseller fiction list just three days after its release on February 28th, Emma Hannigan’s The Gift of Friends was sadly, published posthumously.

The Gift of Friends is, according to the blurb,  “a life-affirming, uplifting story that celebrates the strength and joys of female friendship across generations”.

As we watch the novel jump into the hands of many readers, we are reminded of the author’s final days. “All good things must come to an end. The time that I knew was borrowed must be given back soon, so it seems,” author Emma Hannigan wrote on her Facebook page four weeks before her untimely death from breast cancer.

Before her death, a social media campaign was launched with the hashtag that said #HelpEmmaHelpOthers, urging people to raise €100,000 for Breast Cancer Ireland. The Irish Times notes that “the campaign raised over €135,000 (approx $152,600) within three weeks”. Then, just a few days before her death, Emma Hannigian announced that her thirteenth novel had been completed.

Image Via Independent.ie

As we collect our copies of Hannigan’s final book, we must think of her philosophy, as remembered by her father Philip. “…[L]ook into the past,” Philip Hannigan told the independent, “and try to just remember the good things. If you remember the bad, you end up bitter and sad.”