The Boy in the Moon - Hardcover

O’Riordan, Kate

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0002255553 ISBN 13: 9780002255554

Publisher: Flamingo, 1997

Synopsis

What happens to a marriage when a husband is responsible for his son's death? Julia, whose son dies in such circumstances, flees to Ireland to stay with her father-in-law. There she discovers the dark secrets of her husband's family and learns how tragedy is passed on from generation to generation.

About this title

Review:

‘The Boy in the Moon confirms O’Riordan’s status as a writer of wit, originality and delicacy who can surprise and delight at every turn.’
Sunday Tribune

‘A pacy, thriller-like plot... the characters are vivid and the observations tartly accurate.’
Irish Times

‘Exquisitely spare in execution, this is a haunting examination of human strength and frailty.’
Time Out

From the Back Cover:

CAN LOVE SURVIVE THE GREATEST LOSS OF ALL?

In this funny, wittily observed, instantly recognisable portrait of a modern marriage, we meet Brian, Julia and their young son Sam. An apparently normal London family – loving, hating, bickering – until a seemingly random act of negligence on Brian's part destroys their lives.

Julia flees to Ireland, where she settles into an alien way of life with Brian's father, Jeremiah, a hard, enigmatic man who exerts a strange power over everyone he encounters. Julia nearly succumbs to his strong will, but as she begins to unravel a terrible family history and rediscovers her husband through his dark and terrifying childhood, she is able to cast off Jeremiah's cold shadow.

For Brian in London, the inescapable past also penetrated the mysteries of the present and may even destroy him.

'The Boy in the Moon' is a superb evocation of a distant rural Irish existence and a stark and honest exposure of the intricacies of marriage and family dynamics. Kate O'Riordan has a real gift for combining fast, gritty storytelling with a wonderful ability to pin down character and the real mechanisms of human relationships.

Kate O'Riordan was brought up in the West of Ireland, but now lives in London. She is an award-winning novelist, playwright and television screenwriter, and has been a recipient of the 'Sunday Tribune'/Hennessy Prize for 'Best Emerging Writer'. Her first novel, the much-admired 'Involved' (1995), was shortlisted for the Dillons First Fiction Prize, and is currently being adapted by the author for television.

Praise for 'Involved'

'O'Riordan's powerful storytelling icily conveys the horrible ordinariness of evil.'
PENNY PERRICK, 'Sunday Times'

'Kate O'Riordan is a very skilled writer whose vivid prose has an elegant subtlety. An acutely interesting writer.'
EAMONN SWEENEY, 'Irish Times'

'She has the gift of creating complex characters whose emotions are both real and moving. She is not afraid to shock; her description of violence and sex leaves little room for glamour and sentimentality. A writer of originality and huge promise.'
JONATHAN MOORE, 'Irish Post'

'A witty and moving dissection of young love across internal borders in Ireland. A passionate portrait of familial strife.'
VOGUE

'A contemporary Irish love story and a very compelling first novel, one that tells an old story in a fresh new way. An auspicious debut for a fine artist.'
RONAN SHEEHAN, 'Irish Press'

About this edition

• Publisher: Flamingo
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0002255553
• ISBN 13: 9780002255554
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224