- Published: 01/08/2024
- ISBN: 9781783789504
- Granta Books
- 272 pages
Though the Bodies Fall
Noel O'Regan
Micheál Burns lives alone in his family’s bungalow at the end of Kerry Head in Ireland. It is a picturesque place, but the cliffs have a darker side to them: for generations they have been a suicide black spot. Micheál’s mother saw the saving of these lost souls – these visitors – as her spiritual duty, and now, in the wreckage of his life, Micheál finds himself continuing her work. When his sisters tell him that they want to sell the land, he must choose between his siblings and the visitors, a future or a past.
£9.99
O'Regan creates an evocative sense of place and depicts Micheál's sense of duty, guilt and increasing self-neglect with unflinching honesty
Lucy Popescu, Observer
A quietly moving story of stalled lives and lost chances... O'Regan writes with marked authority... An arresting and original novel that is grounded in its locale
Sarah Gilmartin, Irish Times
O'Regan writes with compassion, humour and imaginative force, signalling the arrival of a major new voice in Irish writing