Description

Book Synopsis

The celebrated second novel by ''one of the greatest writers of our era'' (Hilary Mantel) and ''the Irish novelist everyone should read'' (Colm Tóibín) is ''a perfectly written tour de force'' (Sunday Times) and ''the best novel to come out of Ireland in many years.'' (Irish Times)

Set in rural Ireland, John McGahern''s second novel is about adolescence and a guilty, yet uncontrollable sexuality that is contorted and twisted by both puritanical state religion and a strange, powerful and ambiguous relationship between son and widower father. Against a background evoked with quiet mastery, McGahern explores with precision and tenderness a human situation, superficially very ordinary, but inwardly an agony of longing and despair.

''Wise and compelling ... Elegiac and graceful.'' David Mitchell
''I have admired, even loved, John McGahern''s work since his first novel.'' Melvyn Bragg

The Dark

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    A Paperback / softback by John McGahern

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      Book details

      Publisher Faber & Faber
      Published 5 June 2008
      ISBN-13 9780571225675
      978-0571225675
      ISBN-10 0571225675
      Also in:
      Fiction Contemporary Fiction

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      The celebrated second novel by ''one of the greatest writers of our era'' (Hilary Mantel) and ''the Irish novelist everyone should read'' (Colm Tóibín) is ''a perfectly written tour de force'' (Sunday Times) and ''the best novel to come out of Ireland in many years.'' (Irish Times)

      Set in rural Ireland, John McGahern''s second novel is about adolescence and a guilty, yet uncontrollable sexuality that is contorted and twisted by both puritanical state religion and a strange, powerful and ambiguous relationship between son and widower father. Against a background evoked with quiet mastery, McGahern explores with precision and tenderness a human situation, superficially very ordinary, but inwardly an agony of longing and despair.

      ''Wise and compelling ... Elegiac and graceful.'' David Mitchell
      ''I have admired, even loved, John McGahern''s work since his first novel.'' Melvyn Bragg

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