The Gathering - Hardcover

Enright, Anne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0224078739 ISBN 13: 9780224078733

Publisher: Jonathan Cape, 2007

Synopsis

The nine surviving children of the Hegarty clan gather in Dublin for the wake of their wayward brother Liam. It wasn't the drink that killed him - although that certainly helped - it was what happened to him as a boy in his grandmother's house, in the winter of 1968. His sister Veronica was there then, as she is now: keeping the dead man company, just for another little while.

The Gathering is a family epic, condensed and clarified through the remarkable lens of Anne Enright's unblinking eye. It is also a sexual history: tracing the line of hurt and redemption through three generations - starting with the grandmother, Ada Merriman - showing how memories warp and family secrets fester. This is a novel about love and disappointment, about thwarted lust and limitless desire, and how our fate is written in the body, not in the stars.

The Gathering sends fresh blood through the Irish literary tradition, combining the lyricism of the old with the shock of the new. As in all Anne Enright's work, fiction and non-fiction, this is a book of daring, wit and insight: her distinctive intelligence twisting the world a fraction, and giving it back to us in a new and unforgettable light.

About this title

Review:

`A welcome return, for this writer, to novel form...fresh, sophisticated take on the ever-popular dysfunctional family saga' -- Irish Times

'A compassionate, unflinching gaze...She beautifully describes the way hurt can be inherited...witty, original and inventive...Utterly compelling' -- Daily Mail

`Anne Enright has all she needs in terms of imagination and technique and she's a tremendous phrase maker' -- Observer

'A welcome update of the genre... unremittingly gruelling' -- Telegraph

'Enright ambushes as memory does, drawing you into an event and
then questioning it's reality' -- Sunday Telegraph

`A fresh, sophisticated take on the ever-popular dysfunctional
family saga' -- The Irish Times

`Discomfiting comedy, flab-free prose render her book far more of a dark delight than it's bleak reputation would allow.' -- The Independent

`It is clearly the product of a remarkable intelligence, combined
with a gift for observation and deduction' -- Guardian

`Lyrical, unsettling and beautifully written' -- The Gloss

`She beautifully describes the way hurt can be inherited... a
daring writer - witty, original and inventive...Utterly compelling' -- Daily Mail

From the Publisher:

A remarkable new novel from one of Ireland's most important and innovative writers.

About this edition

• Publisher: Jonathan Cape
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0224078739
• ISBN 13: 9780224078733
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272