A compelling literary novel about hidden family secrets.
A haunting debut set in the harsh, beautiful landscape of Ireland's north coast. Patrick Jackson lies on his deathbed in Derry and recalls a family history marked by secrecy and silence, and a striking absence of conventional pieties. He remembers the death of an eight-year-old girl, whose body was found on reclaimed land called Inch Levels on the shoreline of Lough Swilly. And he is visited by his beloved but troubled sister Margaret and by his despised brother-in-law Robert, and by Sarah, his hard, unchallengeable mother. Each of them could talk about events in the past that might explain the bleakness of their relationships, but leaving things unsaid has become a way of life. Guilt and memory beat against them, as shock waves from bombs in Derry travel down the river to shake the windows of those who have escaped the city.A compelling literary novel about hidden family secrets.
A haunting debut set in the harsh, beautiful landscape of Ireland's north coast. Patrick Jackson lies on his deathbed in Derry and recalls a family history marked by secrecy and silence, and a striking absence of conventional pieties. He remembers the death of an eight-year-old girl, whose body was found on reclaimed land called Inch Levels on the shoreline of Lough Swilly. And he is visited by his beloved but troubled sister Margaret and by his despised brother-in-law Robert, and by Sarah, his hard, unchallengeable mother. Each of them could talk about events in the past that might explain the bleakness of their relationships, but leaving things unsaid has become a way of life. Guilt and memory beat against them, as shock waves from bombs in Derry travel down the river to shake the windows of those who have escaped the city.A compelling literary novel about hidden family secrets.
Neil Hegarty was born in Derry and studied English at Trinity College Dublin, receiving his PhD in 1998. He is the author of the authorised biography of David Frost and of The Story of Ireland. This is his first novel.
A perceptive and moving study of remorse and resilience, of the
legacy violence leaves behind, and of the intricacies of family
life; in the world as Neil Hegarty conjures it, old secrets never
die, and what's past is never past
*John Banville*
Unsettling and thought-provoking, with just enough ambiguity and
nuance to convince, this is a bold and well-crafted debut
*Irish Times*
Hegarty has a gift for lyrical description, and his authorial
detachment adds to a pervading sense of bleakness
*Daily Mail*
An ambitious and engrossing debut novel... an intriguing blend of
kidnap/murder mystery and fractured family history-fuelled drama
infused with evocative descriptions... not everyone can spin a yarn
as well as Neil Hegarty'
*Irish News*
The topography of the north-east plays a leading role in the novel,
its ragged shoreline, the skerries and islets in foaming waves,
silver scree, hillside bracken and heather, all form a stable
background to Jackson's ephemeral memories... There is much to
ponder in this exploration of how we view the past'
*Sunday Independent*
Vividly evokes the wild beauty of the coastal landscape around
Lough Swilly and reeled me in with its gradual revelation of family
secrets
*Danielle McLaughlin, Irish Times*
Moving, intimate... an engrossing and enticing tale'
*Irish Examiner*
An engaging novel which shows rather than tells, richly repaying
close attention
*A Life in Books*
The tensions of blood relations, the wonders of our parents' lives
before us and the ever-widening depths of bereavement are all
explored here with a hypnotic vividness. From natural details to
perfectly rendered thought and feeling, this is a triumphant
book
*A.L. Kennedy.*
Written in an eloquent voice, with gorgeous descriptions of the
passing seasons, the landscape and the world beyond Patrick's
hospital window
*Reading Matters Blog.*
A beautifully judged account of the devastation that can occur when
secrets rule our lives
*Sue Leonard blog*
A complex, multi-stranded narrative... the reader is gripped by
some masterfully handled storytelling... We are taken down some
very shadowy, and disturbingly familiar, avenues in our collective
psyche'
*Irish Times Book Club*
What Hegarty masterfully captures is a landscape and a community
haunted, watched and revisited by ghosts
*Anthony J Quinn, Belfast Telegraph*
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