It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him - and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church.
Awards
* A Book of the Year in The Times, The New Statesman, Observer, Financial Times, Irish Times, Irish Independent & Times Literary Supplement
* Winner of the Orwell Prize
* Winner of the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Awards
* Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize and the Irish Novel of the Year at the Dalkey Literary Awards
Reviews
'Exquisite.' - Damon Galgut
'Masterly.' - The Times
'Miraculous.' - Herald
'Astonishing.' - Colm Tóibín
'Stunning.' - Sunday Independent
'Absolutely beautiful.' - Douglas Stuart
'A genuine once-in-a-generation writer.' - The Times
'[A] snowglobe of a story that fits a whole bustling, striving, yearning world into 114 finely wrought pages.' - Sunday Times
'Powerful and affecting and very timely . . . deeply moving.' - Hilary Mantel
