The Valparaiso Voyage - Softcover

Bolger, Dermot

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0002261790 ISBN 13: 9780002261791

Publisher: Flamingo, 2001

Synopsis

A literary thriller with a heart. ‘The Valparaiso Voyage’ blows the lid off the Celtic Tiger and looks at the corruption which spawned today’s Ireland.

Dermot Bolger is one of the leading figures on the Irish literary scene. Very influential, amazingly energetic and prolific, popular and well respected. This is his eighth novel (and his third for Flamingo).

Bolger’s last novel, ‘Temptation’, was a departure for this author. It was a story of family life, told from a woman’s perspective. ‘The Valparaiso Voyage’ is, as you might say, Bolger returning to familiar territory – back to chronicling the darker side of contemporary Dublin life.

‘The Valparaiso Voyage’ is the story of Brendan Brogan, who grew up in the small town of Navan on the outskirts of Dublin. An unhappy childhood, spent searching for love and affection, leads to an unhappy adulthood spent gambling and trying to hold a difficult marriage together. When circumstances offer Brogan a chance to fake his own death, he seizes the chance and runs – far away to Portugal where a new life beckons.

But no-one can escape the past entirely, and when his father is found murdered, Brogan returns to Dublin. Here he finds a new Ireland, wracked with corruption, everyone – politicians, bankers, businessmen, councillors – caught up in it, including his own father. Tormented by memories and old resentments, Brogan nevertheless feels he must solve the riddle of his father’s death. And he finds himself not in the least surprised to discover that the rot set in many years ago, back in the Navan of his childhood.

A cracking, fast-paced literary thriller, contemporary and topical.

About this title

Review:

‘No Irish novelist since McGahern has been so obsessed with the poetics of love, death and sex. No Irish novelist has so brilliantly captured the suburban underbelly of the city, the crazy unofficial lives.’ Colm Toibin

‘Joyce, O’Flaherty, Brian Moore, a fistful of O’Briens, this is a succulent Who’s Who of Irish writing, and Dermot Bolger is of the same ilk. An exceptional literary gift.’ Independent

‘Bolger’s writing is so strong, so exact, so much the right colour for each moment. Bare and passionate.’ Financial Times

‘a tempestuous...political thriller, a fictional expose of modern times, a tub-thumping rant against the recent past and current attempts to cover up.’
Helen Falconer, The Guardian

‘a telling exploration of the dark aspects of masculinity...Dermot Bolger has produced a polished fable for out times.’
Anne Fogarty, Irish Times

‘an intriguing and often exciting novel from a strong contender for the crown of Ireland’s finest novelist.’
Daily Mail

‘a sophisticated and often electrifying piece of expert storytelling about the ways in which history and present are blended in Ireland.’
Joe O’Connor, The Sunday Tribune

From the Back Cover:

Praise for Dermot Bolger

'Temptation'

'A beautifully understated novel whose portrait of a self-doubting woman is handled with rare and sensitive perspicacity.'
DAILY MAIL

'Father's Music'

'Everything of the alienated urban underbelly is here, in a potent brew. Dermot Bolger creates a Dublin, a particular world like no one else writing can.'
SUNDAY INDEPENDENT

'Emily's Shoes'

'Triumphantly successful – bare and passionate.'
FINANCIAL TIMES

'The Woman's Daughter'

'One of the essential Irish novels, certainly of the decade, and possibly of many another.'
SUNDAY TRIBUNE

About this edition

• Publisher: Flamingo
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0002261790
• ISBN 13: 9780002261791
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400