Though the Bodies Fall | Granta

  • Published: 03/08/2023
  • ISBN: 9781783789481
  • 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.

I was immediately drawn into O'Regan's delicately wrought debut by the tenderness he has for his characters, and by the quiet power that builds beneath the surface of his storytelling

Carys Davies

O'Regan writes with compassion, humour and imaginative force, signalling the arrival of a major new voice in Irish writing

Claire Kilroy

It is rare and wonderful to encounter a talent like O'Regan - his prose is poetic, sweeping yet also so intimate, speaking to the quietest parts of ourselves and exploring how we experience our humanity when no one is looking. I cannot shake this novel; it is haunting and beautiful

Victoria Kennefick