Description
Book SynopsisThe Sway of Winter tells the story of Birgit, a young Scandinavian woman who has moved to the island of Inis Breac to paint, and to recover from a suffocating relationship. Geoff, an English widower, shattered by years of hard drinking after his wife’s drowning, runs the local bookshop. Birgit visits Africa in a quest to decide her future in working among the deprived, but finds there only a mirror of an inner poverty. This finely wrought debut novel is a potent revelation of how lives converge in the passage between trauma and resolution, leading to emotional renewal. With a fresh and unusual voice new to Irish fiction, Orla Murphy captivates the reader with her passionate and nuanced narrative.
Trade Review‘Orla Murphy writes with painterly poise. Her canvas may be small-town life but her territory is the emotional offshore. The Sway of Winter shimmers – a wry and luminous exploration of both the terrible wreckage and the tentative redemption of love.’ – Mary Morrissy, author of The Pretender
