Description
Book SynopsisSet around a small family farm on the edge of a bog, a few miles from the river Shannon, Minor Monuments is a collection of essays unfolding from the landscape of the Irish midlands. Taking in the physical and philosophical power of sound and music, and the effects of Alzheimer's disease on a family, Ian Maleney questions the nature of home, memory and the complex nature of belonging. A thought-provoking and quietly devastating meditation on family and loss, and with echoes of Tim Robinson and Tara Westover, Minor Monuments is a beautiful and unique literary experience.
Trade ReviewSALLY ROONEY 'Minor Monuments is a beautiful, touching, and extraordinarily intelligent book. I loved every page.’ FINTAN O’TOOLE ‘Minor Monuments is beautifully poised between the vivid recollection of experience and subtle reflections on the nature of memory itself. Ian Maleney writes with both a poetic serenity and a startling immediacy, a combination as rare as it is absorbing.’ EMILIE PINE ‘Honest, thoughtful, ambitious - a portrait of the essayist as a young man.’ LISA MCINERNEY ‘Minor Monuments is brilliant, pulsing with intellect and insight, with each observation composed so beautifully as to be deeply moving. This is the kind of book that changes its reader.’ KEVIN BARRY ‘These essays are thoughtful, precise, beautifully controlled, and with a nicely wry humour helping us along the way - this is an extremely fine debut.’
