Reading in the Dark
By Seamus Deane
A New York Times Notable Book
Winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize
Winner of the Irish Times Fiction Award and International Award
The book is from the
first person perpective, and the
narrator remains unnamed throughout the book (however the book is said to be
autobiographical). It portrays the struggle of a small
Celtic community (
Derry), however goes in much deeper than
Irish political issues. It touches on the breaking of
family, the
mysticism of traditional
Irish religion,
stroytelling, the nature of
family secrets, and the diverse effect that past events have on those living in the
present.
Seamus Deane was born in Derry in 1940. He is the author of a number of books of criticism and poetry, as well as the general editor of The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing. He currently teaches at the University of Notre Dame.
"A swift and masterful transformation of family griefs and political violence into something at once rhapsodic and heartbreaking. If Issac Babel had been born in Derry, he might have written this sudden, brilliant book."
Seamus Heaney
"The intimacy of a memoir. . . the suspense of a detective story. . . . A novel suffused with magical loveliness." - The New York Times Book Review
"Luminous. . . gripping. . . . It possesses the compassion and wit of Angela's Ashes combined with the aching regret of an Irish ballad." - The New York Times
"Abundant, darkly funny, heartrending, life-affirming." - San Francisco Chronicle